


It Ends in Metal and Fire

by Dxlilith



Series: Song and Deth [12]
Category: Metalocalypse
Genre: Gen, M/M, Post-Doomstar Requiem
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-25
Updated: 2017-12-04
Packaged: 2018-06-04 11:02:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 10
Words: 21,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6655372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dxlilith/pseuds/Dxlilith
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Yes but you should know that we have a traitor amongst Dethklok and when the time is right, they will be put into action..." - Selatcia</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Last Meal

"Nathan, I can't do this." Abigail sighs, turning away from the frontman.

"Why not? Is it, is it cause my breath stinks?" Nathan blows out a breath into his palm to double check.

Abigail laughs. "No Nathan, your breath is just fine." 

She looks away towards the other end of the dining table where the rest of the band is having a food fight with ketchup, making the scene unknowingly obscene. She laughs even more when Pickles comes out from under the table ala Scarface and squirts everyone in the eye only to be thwarted by Toki who creeps up behind him with a bucket of mustard.

Murderface, Skwisgaar, and even Charles cheer as Toki licks ketchup off his face. His eyes catch Abigail's and for a moment they are both asking a thousand things like _is this real? Are we really here? This is home and this is family. Our family_. She nods her head and turns back to Nathan to tell him the reason she can't have a romantic relationship with him is and she stops. Nathan is smiling, waving at Toki.

"That's why Nathan." Abigail smirks, reaching over the table to grab the only unscathed bottle of wine left on the table. Her wound stung at the motion but the subsequent alcohol would soothe her, she's sure.

"Huh? Did you say something?"

"You'll figure it out eventually." She says before taking a swig of wine straight from the bottle. Hey, she'd been chained to a cross only three days ago, fuck manners.

"Everyone, don't forget we have a meeting in the morning."

"I thought you shaid you wouldn't be our manager anymore?" Murderface points a finger at Charles with his bandaged hand. It looked like it'd been bleeding but that could easily be ketchup.

"Yes but this is concerning the Chruch of Black Klok which if you hadn't noticed, I represent now." He looks down at his cloak and pendant as if stating the obvious.

"It was actually my idea." Abigail raises her bottle. " We need to figure out our next move concerning the new album as well as this whole end of the world Metalocalypse thing. Charles tells me key events have already taken place."

"Yes, the doom star is now awake and the power has been granted but we'll talk about this in the morning. You all deserve some rest." Charles looks every member of Dethklok in the eye and stops at Abigail.

"Is dat the big ol' elephant in da sky we've been ignorin' dis whole time?" Pickles points to the floor-to-ceiling windows off to the side that reveal a dark sky with a burning mass of orange and white flames churning in the horizon.

"Yes. That." Charles adjusts his glasses and coughs. 

The room is silent. A harsh contrast to only moments ago. Abigail felt the same dread everyone else was feeling. She takes another swig. 


	2. The Mirror

" _William_."

He wanted to sleep straight into the new year and then some. When he heard his name, he ignored it.

" _William._ " 

He turns in bed, punching his pillow. Sleep dammnit, that's what he needed and he was going to get it!

"Moidaface!"

His eyes shoot open and he sits up just in time to see his bedroom door close. "What the fuck?" He grumbles. "Toki, isch that you? Quit dickin' around, schome of ush are tryna shleep." He scans the room for any signs of Toki but finds nothing. He shakes his head and throws himself back on the bed.

Sleep. That's all Murderface needed and then maybe he could deal with whatever else came his way. He closes his eyes.

"Moidaface, wakes up I wants to show you somethings." Toki's voice fills his head. He opens his eyes and doesn't have to look far to find the Norwegian. He's kneeling in his bed beside him.

"Toki, you have ten scheconds before I kill you."

"Moidaface, yous wouldn't hurts Toki!" He smiles, tilting his head to the side like a puppy.

"Watch me." Murderface says as he reaches under his pillow for his knife.

"Comes Moidaface, Is wants to show you somethings." Toki insists, his hand reaching for Murderface's and tugging.

"Get the fuck..." No one is there. He's alone. But now he's in the hallway and his bowie knife is missing. "What the..."

"Moidaface! Comes, Is down heres." Toki peeks his head out from around the corner, waving an arm.

"Fuck me." Murderface sighs and figures why the fuck not. The kid was excited about something, he might as well see what it is and get this over with.

"Down heres!" He hears Toki's voice. They're in the west wing of Mordhaus, the exact opposite of his room. His head felt funny. It'd been an on and off again feeling since...well he can't remember that either. Maybe he should get it checked out. Or maybe he could ignore it.

Murderface drags his feet through the hall until he is where Toki had popped out of but he sees no one. "Toki, man, you're startin' to get of my lascht fuckin' nerve!" He calls out. There's no response.

A string of expletives fill his mind but Murderface turns back to head to his room anyway. That's when he hears it. A soft groan, like someone whose been hurt. He weighs his options and decides to follow the noise.

It's coming from a door he is pretty sure was Nathan's room. The groaning was louder, mewling, and honestly Murderface had no desire to know what it was now that he was standing so close.

" _William_." A voice called, although it wasn't Toki's. His hand was on the doorknob before he could think otherwise. He opens it just enough to peek inside and what he sees shatters him.

Toki is naked on all fours on top the bed. His hair spills onto either side of him, sticking to his skin from the sweat. Some of it is caught in his open mouth as he moans loudly. Behind him, gripping his hips to the point of bruising, was Nathan. Also naked and steadily thrusting into him. 

"Natens!" Toki writhes as he is impaled by the larger man.

"You like that, don't you?"

"Ja, gives Toki more please, _please_."

Murderface looks on in horror. Toki and Nathan were fucking? Sure, he knew that there was something kind of gay about them but as individuals not inclusive towards one another.

" _Natens, fucks me harder!_ " Toki moans obscenely. Nathan collects some of Toki's hair in one hand and pulls him flush against him. With his free hand, he roams over Toki's torso until he can reach the younger man's swollen cock.

" _How dare heee!_ " The voice whispers. " _Toki was yours_." 

"I fucking told him I have fuckin' feelings for Toki, the fuckin' backschtabber!" Murderface turns away from the door, fists clenched, eyes stinging.

" _It should be your name the boy calls out in pleasure. Not Nathan, the man who always gets what his black heart desires_."

"Fucking shick of it!"

" _He is a selfish man. A man that would see you stay in the dark, cast out and unwanted._ "

"Yeah well I'm gonna kick his assh!"

" _Why not more? Why not take his power? Make him fall unto his knees and beg for your mercy. Toki will surely see the error of his ways and throw himself to you._ "

"Yeah, that schounds fucking aweshome!" Murderface is now back in his room again. He didn't understand how. And the voice, who the fuck was that? 

" _William, you have a power of your own but it's locked away. I can help you unleash it._ "

"Who are you?" Murderface is now standing in front of a full length mirror but it's not his reflection he sees. Instead there stands a man much taller than him in a dark green suit. He has flowing white hair and glowing purple eyes. There is something familiar about him but Murderface can't place him.

" _Your one and only friend_." The man in the mirror holds out his hand, his claws protruding from the glass. " _Let me help you, William_."

"Why?" Murderface feels himself stepping closer to the mirror but he knows he doesn't actually want to, just that he is. "What's in it for you?"

" _The same as you._ " 

The man's hand is now coming through the mirror and Murderface is raising his to meet it, the bandages around his wound falling away. He doesn't feel in control of his own body but the pull is so comforting.  

Murderface is too lost in Selatcia's trance to notice the pulsing light emitting from his wound and how it's growing in size. Lost still when Selatcia's steps fully through the mirror and into the room to dig his claws into his skin. He is bleeding now, a neon violet ooze from the wound but Murderface only feels the comfort. The slow, sick, sleepy comfort from Selatcia.

" _My power_."


	3. The Radioactive Spider

"Pickles, I knows you ams awake."

The drummer in question has been laying in bed since retiring from dinner, fully clothed with his sneakers still on feet. He couldn't sleep and he didn't want to take anything to help. Something was niggling him in the back of his mind to remain sober and aware. Or as sober as possible which meant no heavy narcotics.

"Whaddya want Skwis?" Pickles calls out as he makes his way over to the door. "You an' Murderface eatin' candy an' watchin' scary movies again?" 

He opens the door to find the lead guitarist of Dethklok shirtless and a bottle of vodka in either hand. "Oh you brought gifts, why didn't you say so? Come in, come in." He moves aside to let Skwisgaar into the room, taking a bottle as he does.

"Is got de good kind from the motherlands, none of dat cheap shits you likes."

"What can I say? I'm a simple man wit simple tastes." Pickles undos the top and takes a shot straight. It burns all the way down. "So what's up guy? What brings ya dis way?"

"Somethings ams bothering me and I knows you feels it too."

"Uh, is it gas? Cause I got a lot of gas from dem burritos we ate." As if on cue, Pickles burps. 

"It ams somethings else. Somethings big." Skwisgaar takes a drink of his own bottle. "Something of biblikal portions."

"Well we got dat der fire ball in da sky an' some dood is after us an' oh yeah, dat prophecy thing." Pickles takes the one chair in his room, spins its backwards and sits on it. "I mean we're just five doods in a band but apparently dat's enuff to get an whole apocolaypse goin'."

"Ja but yous feels it too, don't you Pickle?" Skwisgaar remains standing, walking in small circles. "Dis energy, dis bad energy. It ams floating around and squishing at the back of you eyeballs what gots you feelings like something ams coming?"

"When you put it like dat, yeah actually. Ever since we rescued Toki, it's like, my blood's pumpin' faster an' I'm feelin' things dat ain't der. I'm thinkin' it's stress?"

"No. Stress what makes it so dat your dick don't perform and make you eat like fatty fucks but this, this fucking dålig that's lingerings, ams worst."

Pickles takes another drink, mulling over Skwisgaar's words. What was expected of them? What was supposed to happen? Rescuing Toki was one thing but taking on forces of darkness or whatever this metalocalypse was about, that was totally above their pay grade. 

"Oh thank God, _people_." Both men turn to the door where a rather tired looking Abigail in a tank top and black shorts appears. She crosses the threshold and grabs the bottle out of Pickles' hand and takes a giant gulp. 

"Hi Pickles, hi Skwisgaar, may I partake in some of yer booze? Sure Abigail, join us. We were just discussing world politics, care to chime in?"

"Sorry." Abigail makes a face from the alcohol and hands the bottle back to Pickles. "I've just been wandering the halls for hours now, trying to find the way back to my room and you guys were the first signs of life I'd seen and _wow_ that is some really great vodka."

"Ja, it's from Sweden." Skwisgaar smirks.

"Ah yeah, dis place is fuckin' hooge an' you can get lost in it fer weeks. We can help you find yer way back if ya want, right Skwis?"

"Thanks but actually...do you mind if...if I hang out with you guys for a bit? I'm not ashamed to admit I'm a little paranoid about being alone right now."

"Funny things you say, wes ams just diskussing that." Skwisgaar offers her the edge of Pickles bed as a seat and sits. He gives her his bottle and she gladly takes another drink.

"You guys paranoid about another attack by those freaks too?"

"Not until dis very moment." Pickles grimaces and takes a swig of his bottle. Maybe sober wasn't the way to go tonight.

"Wes was talkin' abouts the heebie jesus. It's everywheres tonight."

"I can't believe I'm saying this but yeah, you're right." Abigail goes to take another drink but stops herself and hands the bottle back to Skwisgaar. "I keep telling myself it's just ptsd or indigestion induced by horrible eating habits."

"I said it was gas."

"I thinks wes ams no longer mortals." Skwisgaar says in the most serious tone possible.

"Says da guy whose a self-proclaimed _guitar god_."

"Pickle, listens to me and I means really listens. Something happened to us the night we saves Toki. I knows you feels it in your bloods. Like we ams fucking invincibakle." 

Pickles looks to Abigail who only offers a shrug. He knows what Skwisgaar is talking about but he couldn't put it into words until now. "It was like, dat first time we played as a band. It was fuckin' electric but now it's more....I dunno.... _intense_." 

"Ja! And that show we just did, we played like fucking Gods. Odin himself ams shitting him pants."

There was something amazing about their last performance and it wasn't just all the stage malfunctions or the stampeding crowds of people. It was something intrinsically theirs, like something had shifted and they were more than _just_  a band. "But still dood, we can't just go around claiming to be Gods. I mean, none of us can even make a decent sandwich."

"Ha!" Abigail snorts a laugh but gets two death glares sent her way for it. "Sorry but might I interject?"

"Go aheads." Skwisgaar turns to Abigail, crossing his arms against his bare chest.

"Well, normally I'd say you're just full of yourselves but I've seen enough shit these last few weeks that has made me rethink the cosmic order of things. I mean, I literally watched a man be obliterated by lightning from inside out. That same lightining struck the five of you, raised you into the air and drop you down like nothing actually ever happened."

"You think dat was our radioactive spider?"

"I dos not understands, what does spiders have to dos wit dis?"

"He means like spiderman the comic book character. He was bit by a radioactive spider which granted him super powers like shooting webs from his wrists and climbing up walls."

"Dat ams worth tryings."

"Wait, what're we tryin?"

"We should see if we ams super spiders. Maybe we just haven't tried anything so we don'ts know."

"I'm going to throw this out here but that sounds like a terrible idea."

"Aww c'mon Abigail, what's a bunch of drunk shenanigans amongst friends?" 

"Ja Abbagalls, shenanighans. It's not like we can sleeps anyways. We eithers prove we are spiders or we stay up all nights not feelings de dark feelings we ams all awake because of."

Abigail looks between the two members of Dethklok and again is questioning how she ended up here. "Fine but nothing crazy or anything where you guys can get _too_ hurt." 

"No worries Abbagalls, I would never intentionally ruin this beautifuls face." 


	4. Put Your Lips Against Mine

He'd fallen asleep on the couch of all places. He was just so fucking tired that he never made it back to his bedroom after their surreal dinner party.

"Natens?"

"Huh?" 

"Is sorries but I... It's stupids."

Nathan hears footsteps retreating and his hand shoots out to grab a slender wrist. "What is it Toki?"

"Is scareds."

Nathan slowly opens his eyes. It was dark, too dark to see anything but an outline of the younger man. "Of?"

"What if they come back? I don't wants to gos back." He whimpers.

"C'mere." Nathan sits up and pulls Toki onto the couch with him. He tucks him into his side and it's a perfect fit. Nathan places his chin on top of Toki's head and speaks in a low growl. "My name's Nathan Explosion. Nothing can hurt you while I'm around because I can and will beat the shit out of it." He didn't know if this would work but Twinkletits said something about verbal affirmations blah blah blah.

"I know who yous ams, dildos." Toki mumbles into Nathan's hair. It smells like the pot Pickles had offered everyone earlier. Just being in the same room as Nathan helped but he had a million things going on inside his head besides the crippling fear of the dark and who was waiting for him inside of it.

They sit in their strange but comforting side hug for a while. Long enough for Nathan to start snoring. Toki bites back a chuckle and runs a hand through the singer's hair. Well almost. He gets to about a quarter way down his head when Toki's hand catches on a tangle. He tries not to panic but can only think to yank his hand out, effectively waking Nathan up.

"What the fuck Toki!!" Nathan shouts, sitting up and away from him.

"Sorries I...I wanted to pet yous hair and it's a big mess!"

"Yeah, well when the fuck do I have time to wash and condition it?"

"I don't knows, maybe all dat times you left me and Abbagals to dies?" Toki covers his mouth. He didn't mean to sound so wicked, it was more like a passing comment. An observation really because he was kidnapped for weeks not days and...

"Fuck Toki." Nathan is definitely wide awake now.

"I sorries. We ams safe and and....I gos now." 

Toki stands up and speed-walks out of the room. He can hear the lumbering footfalls of Nathan right behind him. Toki stops to turn around and tell him everything was okay but he instead is manhandled into the giant arms of Dethklok's frontman, his feet leaving the ground.

"We...I can say sorry until I rupture more organs but we didn't go looking for you right away. We...I was...Fuck, this is hard."

Toki's hands find a place on either side of Nathan's ribs, digging his fingers into the well worn fabric of his shirt. He can feel the erratic ba-dumdumdum-ba-dum of the singer's hearbeat. "It's okay." he whispers.

"No." Nathan's hold lessens, allowing for Toki to stand but still be in his arms. "We thought we could solve it like we solve all of our problems." 

Toki says nothing. He hates Dethklok. He hates them for always treating him like an unwanted tag-along. He hates them for breaking up in the first place and letting him get kidnapped at a fucking funeral. He hates them so much for waiting so long to come rescue him. But he also loves them because they are his brothers and he knew they were assholes and it sometimes took a while for them to get things right. He especially loves Nathan.

"We ams safe now." Toki whispers, turning his head so that he could put his ear directly over Nathan's heart. "I forgives yous."

Nathan says nothing. Was there anything to say? He holds Toki a little closer, content to just stand in the dark hallway with him. Let someone walk by, he didn't give a shit. They could stay there all night and into the next day. It doubled as making sure Toki wasn't snatched up again.

"Natens?"

"Mm?"

"Can Is sleeps with yous tonight?"

Nathan doesn't bother to correct him on the exact phrasing and nods his head. He is reluctant to let go but does so when he hears Toki's muffled laughter at not having moved at all.

"Sorry." He lets go of Toki, hating the cold air that now take his place.

"Ams fine." Toki slips his hand into Nathan's and leads the way to Nathan's bedroom. Once there, they go about getting ready for bed. Which was simply removing their jeans and remaining in boxers and tees as they crawled onto either side of the bed. They lie quietly on their backs, only a couple inches apart underneath the blanket. 

The entire time Toki was gone, Nathan hadn't slept unless aided by copious amounts of drugs and alcohol so now he just wants to pass out like he passed out on the couch but something felt off. He turns on his side to face Toki and finds that Toki has done the same. Their eyes meet and in the soft light of his room, Nathan can see a pained look on his face.

"Does it hurt..." Nathan gestures to Toki's stomach. 

"Huh? Oh. No, it ams gone."

"What?"

"Look." Toki pulls up from the hem his shirt to expose his abdomen. His muscles are less defined than usual but no one is blaming him for missing ab day while he was otherwise tied up. And there's nothing else. No scar, no wound, nothing.

"But I watched Magnus..."

"Ja." Toki takes one of Nathan's hands and places it  against his abdomen, right where he felt Magnus' knife pierce through. "Gone."

Toki's skin was rough. Nathan doesn't understand why that surprises him so much. Was he expecting supple, moisturized skin like a chick? It was also warm and breathing and his hand looked even paler against the Norwegian's natural tan. He flexes his fingers and feels Toki tense up.

"Sorry." He offers but he doesn't remove his hand.

"It ams okays, I likes when yous touch me."

"Toki, you realize how gay that sounds?"

"Natens, yous realizes how gay yous looks with me in yous bed and yous hand up my shirt?" Toki says with is a smug look on his face. 

"A little..." Nathan slowly move his hand further up into Toki's shirt, getting a feel of every bit of muscle along the way. He doesn't know why he's doing it. Just that he is and that he kind of likes it and Toki isn't complaining. In fact, he seems to be leaning into the touch. He gets to Toki's ribs when Toki lets out a shuddered breath. That shouldn't have sent a pulse through Nathan straight into his dick but it does and Nathan realizes then and there, he is way in over his head because one, he's not gay and two, this is Toki. Freshly saved from a dungeon Toki who could easily feel like he should put out for whoever saved him because he is so fucking vulnerable right now and why was....

"Natens?" 

Nathan's train of thought completely derails. "Yeah?"

"You feels it too."

"Feel what?" The overwhelming need to stick my dick in you? Yes he thinks.

"This." Toki sits up but only enough to bring his hand up to Nathan's chest. His spreads his fingers apart as far as they can go. 

"My heart?" He responds, his own hand moving to the same spot on Toki's chest.

"Ja." Toki says simply. He leans in, his eyes darting between Nathan's lips and Nathan's eyes. "Somethings ams pulling me to yous."

 "Yeah. Something...something's pulling me to you too." Nathan edges closer to Toki. They are now so close that they can't see each other's faces properly. Toki closes his eyes first. Nathan follows and leans in. Their lips meet.

The ground underneath them falls away in a sudden downward swing and they are no longer in Mordhaus but in a pit of fire. Their bodies are caught in the flames instantly but they somehow remain unharmed and their hands reach out to hold onto each other. There are no walls, just fire but there is a voice. Far above them, singing an aria of earsplitting screeches. 

Suddenly, ravens descend upon them, their razor sharp wings nicking them on their way into the ground where instead of splatting into a mess of organs they become black smears. Soon they are surrounded by black and fire.

Their lips seperate.

The sounds of their panting breaths fill the otherwise silent bedroom. Nathan's arms hold him up above Toki who now lays directly beneath him. They are both coated in sweat, Nathan's hair clinging to the back of his neck and Toki's a wild halo of dark brown against the sheets. Moments pass between them, looking around with their eyes in search of fire until finally Nathan blurts out. "What the fuck was that?"

"I...don'ts know."

"I mean like what the actual fuck was that? Is that what happens when you kiss a dude?"

Toki shakes his head. "Nei, it's like kissing a goyle onlys not so gentles."

"You've kissed a guy before? _Was it Skwisgaar_ " Toki's cheeks turn a bright pink. "No, don't answer that, I don't want to know."

Toki turns his head. This was just his luck wasn't it? His first kiss with Nathan and they share an intensely horrifying vision of hellfire.

"Hey, c'mon. I dont care if, if you kissed Skwisgaar before or...whatever. I uh, I just...what the fuck was that y'know?"

Toki turns back to look up at Nathan. "We could...tries again?"

Nathan considers this. Maybe it was the stress? Yeah, they were fucking stressed. He nods his head and leans in. Toki meets him halfway, taking his face in his hands before their lips meet again.

And they're back. The flames are higher now and the black birds turned smears are boiling around them. Nathan searches for a way out but can only see bright hot fire. 

The disembodied voice is clearer now. It's repeating only one word, over and over, in it's screeching cadence.

" _Power_."

Nathan grabs Toki by the back of his shirt, spinning him to face him and kisses him because that's what he fucking wanted in the first place. Toki's hands pull at Nathan's shoulders, forcing the frontman lower and the kiss deepens. Something cracks open inside them and melts into their bloodstream like heroin. Some people talked about first kisses being full of fireworks and harps and maybe because this was them this was their fireworks and harps. 

Nathan feels Toki slipping away with the ground and he thinks not this shit again and his hold tightens but they're back on his bed. Only this time, Toki is on top of him, straddling his hips and his hands on his chest. Their eyes lock and they're breathing is in sync.

"Being gay?" Nathan grunts as he shifts to accommodate Toki's weight. "A lot more brutal than I thought it was going to be."

The smile that spreads across Toki's face could split Nathan in half. "I don't thinks this ams about being gay, I thinks this ams somethings with de doom star."

"Shit, I didn't think of that."

Toki lets out a hollow laugh and leans down, his lips almost catching Nathan's before he lets his face fall onto Nathan's shoulder instead. He tucks his arms in and whispers. "Is sorries."

"For what?" Nathan brings his arms around Toki's small frame. His shirt is damp with sweat but his own was probably just as bad. 

"Is always pictured...kissing yous...betters." Toki's  voice is soft and full of regret? Longing? Hurt?

"The kissing isn't...you've thought about kissing me before?" Toki nods his head against him. Something similiar to pride swells in Nathan and his face gets hot. "I...uh...the kissing part wasn't bad at all, it's this apocalypse bullshit that's getting in the way. Been fucking with a lot lately."

Toki nods his head again. 

"Go to sleep. We'll figure this out and then maybe, we can, we can do something more than just kissing without otherworldy interupptions."

"Is that a løfte?" Toki whispers.

"You bet your ass."


	5. Separation Anxiety

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "His death may ignite long-dormant emotions. He will spin out of control into a vortex of madness. He will bring death to us all. He will bring death to us all. Thank you." - Dr. Ralphus Galkinsmelter

William Murderface has left Mordhaus in more ways than one. He roams the woods alone and assured. The yard wolves have been following him since he first left the grounds but maintain their distance. They know striking would be foolhardy. 

A twig snaps behind him.

"Master?"

" _Yessss_." Murderface turns to face Vater Orlaag and General Crozier. 

"Congratulations on your first victory of the night. We await your orders." Both men bow.

" _Raise them_." Murderface points to the General. " _March into Mordhaus._ "

"With all due respect, we've seen this before, all the members of Dethklok managed to escape last time."

" _Do not compare my legion to that pitiful scrabble. Mordhaus will crumble, now that only four remain."_

"As you wish." The General bows and disappears into a thicket of trees.

"I hope he dies in battle, it would be good to be rid of him." Orlaag says when the General is out of hearing range.

" _Tonight, many will die_." Murderface holds out his arms, his palms facing the earth. It begins to crumble, soil turning into loose chunks. A billow of black smoke seeps out and collects into a smog until there is a solid outline of a guitar.

Murderface's fingers wrap around the neck and body, bringing it close to him. A strap materializes around his body and the smoke dissapates to reveal a luminous black bass.

"It is beautiful Master."

" _It is_." Murderface plays a chord and the air around them is left humming. The yard wolves began to howl.

"What now?" Orlaag raises his brow.

" _Come. We must see to the Angel and Song. They're too powerful together."_

Orlaag's features alight with glee. "As you wish."  
   
\---

Abigail has never laughed so hard in her entire life than in this moment. Pickles was somehow convinced he'd gain some super kung fu powers and now lies in a tangled limb mess on the floor with Skwisgaar who is cursing in Swedish about his hair and they only seem to be beating each other up in their failed attempts to seperate. _These_ were the men responsible for saving the world? Everyone was fucked! She's laughs even harder from the thought.

"My lords...and lady! Mordhaus is under attack, we must evacuate."

Everything goes quiet except for Abigail who is attempting to regulate her breathing and the sound of running Gears outside the door.

"Ams it them Revengencers?" Skwisgaar asks after finally just kicking himself out of Pickles' grasp. He stands and holds out his hand for the drummer to get up as well. They both flex and crack whatever they could have possibly popped out of place.

"We have yet to confirm their identity," Klokateer 813 says. "But they do appear to be a highly militirize force. I am here to bring you to the rendezvous point."

"No." Abigail manages. She sits up, holding onto her side. She isn't sure but she feels like she's rip at least one or two stitches. "I'm staying to fight."

"Sos ams I. These dildos can't just comes to Mordhaus and fucks shit up anymores. Right Pickle?"

The aforementioned member of Dethklok says nothing. He is too busy chewing on his lip.

"Right Pickle?" Skwisgaar prompts again, this time glaring at him.

"Let's just go wit 'im." Pickles walks pass Skwisgaar and into the doorway. He can feel the two sets of eyes boring holes into him. "C'mon. Da sooner we know what we're up against, da sooner we can go smash in some fuckin' skulls."

\---

"You are to overrun Mordhaus and all those who stand in your way. Your orders come directly from our Master." 

General Crozier is pacing back and forth as The Legion still rises up through the ground.

"Take any and all entrances, I don't care if you have to climb, swim, or fly. We will overwhelm those Gears."

His eyes meet the eyeless sockets of the first row of skeleton warriors. Despite having to crawl up through the dirt, their obsidan armor shines bright in the moonlight and their swords even brighter. These were Selatcia's army, reborn and ready to continue their fight from centuries ago. They carry their broadswords and maces, bows and arrows but no shields. They are a mighty offensive that soon infest the forest surrounding Mordhaus.

"Now march!" The sound of crushing boots and clanging swords awakens a thrill in Crozier he hasn't felt since 'Nam. The Legion marches through in waves, with more still breaching soil. There was no winning for Dethklok tonight. There was only death and surrender.

\---

The sound of howling wolves wakes him. He'd been having a bad dream anyway so he didn't mind but he could feel his heart beating furiously in his throat. Toki lies on his back with Nathan's tree trunk of an arm draped over him, tucking him into the singer's side. He tries to focus on Nathan's breathing to calm him but instead makes out the soft rushes of feet outside the door.

"Natens, wakes up." He whimpers, nudging Nathan in the ribs with his elbow. Nathan responds by turning away from Toki. This frees him to sit up in bed and start shaking his massive shoulders. "Natens please." He whispers a little louder.

"Mmmnh Toki what's..."

"My Lord!" Klokateer 748 bursts through the door and scares the living shit out of Toki who lets out a strangled cry, effectively waking Nathan. 

" _Lords_." 748 corrects himself. "Mordhaus is under attack, we must evacuate."

"Fuck." Nathan is up and throwing Toki over his shoulder in two seconds, following the Klokateer out of the room. "Who's attacking?"

"We don't know my lord, just that they are militirized and coming from the woods." 

The hallway is full of Gears running up and down the hall stimulitaneously, silent and with guns. 748 ushers Nathan into the center of the hall to avoid collisions.

"Where's everybody else?"

"At the rendezvous point." He motions to the left of the hall.

"Natens, I ams not drunk." 

"Oh. Uh...should I put you down?"

"Nos. I feel safes."

"Good." Nathan starts walking behind 748.

"But coulds you maybes find a more comfortables position? I feels like a giant sausage."

"How's this?" Nathan pulls Toki down into his arms in a bridal carry. Toki's arms instinctually find their way around his neck and their eyes lock. 

"Betters."

"Good." Nathan growls. He needed Toki to stop being so fucking...whatever it is he was because he was having really gay thoughts about him right now. Like throwing him onto the floor and eating him. Not in the zombie kind of way but he wants to put his mouth all over Toki's skin, bite all his soft flesh; the nape of his neck or the inside of his wrists. Maybe even make him speak exclusively in Norwegian because he can't handle...

"Sirs," 748 coughs. "We should continue."

Toki laughs nervously, leaning forward to whisper into Nathan's ear. "We must have been thinkings de same things." His lips graze the skin near Nathan's ear and sends a pleasurable sensation throughout his body but 748 is still staring directly at them. 

"We're...uh...going." Nathan grunts and follows 748. 

They pick up the pace when turn the corner and enter an empty hallway. They're going heading further and further into the center of Mordhaus. Gradually, the sound of Gears fades into an eerie silence and Toki's arms tighten around Nathan.

"I has bad feelings about this."

"My lords, we're almost there." 748 offers, making a quick right into the next hallway.

"Where is there?" Nathan calls out.

"Command cent..."

"Guys! Wait up!" 

Murderface is running down the opposite hallway they'd come from. He was fully dress with a bass guitar hung around him. "Do you know whatsch goin' on? A bunch of..." He stops and stares at Toki. "You schprained your ankle or shomething?"

"Nos. Is scareds so Natens keeps me safe."

" _How sickening_."

"Moidaface, what's wrong wit yous..." Toki's question is cut off by a gurgling noise. Nathan's turns them around in time to catch 748 being pushed onto the floor by another Klokateer. There's a knife embedded in the back of his neck and if that didn't mean he was dead, the pool of blood quickly forming around his head surely was.

"The fuck was that for?" Nathan barks at the Klokateer, putting Toki down and pushing him between himself and the wall.

" _A diversion_." Murderface holds his hand up and Nathan lurches foward onto his knees. He starts clawing at his throat as an unseen force crushes his windpipe.

"Natens!" Toki rushes to Nathan but is thrown back against the wall with a loud crack.

" _Bind him, this should not take long_." 

The unknown Klokateer walks past Murderface, his image morphing to it's true form of Vater Orlaag. He holds up both hands and Toki's body slide up against the wall as chains form across his wrists and ankles.

 " _A serpent is only killed by removing the head_." Murderface's hand curls into a fist and the grip around Nathan's throat tightens.

"Lets him go yous fucking dildos!" Toki screams, yanking at the chains with little avail. 

" _Bring him closer, I need him to watch_."

Orlaag flicks his wrists. Toki comes off the wall and onto his knees beside Murderface. His arms are twisted behind him and Orlaag snatches a fistful of his hair to pull his head back, forcing him to look right at Nathan. They're so close that if Toki had any control of his body, he could reach out and touch him. Their eyes meet.

"To...ki." Nathan manages.

"Jeg beklager!" Toki's voice breaks. "Jeg beklager!"

This is not how Nathan ever imagined dying. He always thought there would be lots of blood and guts or a mosh pit or even a drug overdose like a real rockstar. But this? This whole, slowly strangled by his bassist in front of his rhythm guitarist slash guy he kind of wanted to fuck but also wanted to be with in a non sexual but still romantic kind of way? He didn't even know what was happening there. Did he love Toki? Did he love Toki enough to actually be gay with him? He had too many questions and Toki was still crying and that fucking does it. 

Nathan lets out a growl that shakes the walls around them and starts to stand up on his own two feet.

" _No, you..._."

"Fuck you." Nathan rasps. He swings and lands a swift punch to Murderface's jaw that sends him onto the floor in a rain of teeth and blood. The chokehold has been lifted but it doesn't stop him from kicking Murderface several times in the stomach and chest until he realizes he is either dead or unconcious. He looks up and finds both Toki and Orlaag staring in silent awe. "You fucking want some of this?"

Orlaag's face pales and he raises his hands in defeat. The chains around Toki fade away and the second they're gone he's throwing himself at Nathan and burying his face in the frontman's chest.

"What de fucks is going on? Why is Moidaface tryings to kill yous?!"

"I don't think that's actually him. I think that..." Nathan stops.

"Natens?" Toki looks up. Nathan's face is paler than usual, his eyes fixed on a point pass Toki's head. He takes a step back, trying to get his attention when he notices the blood slowly trickling out from the corner of Nathan's mouth. Their eyes meet once more.

"Toki..nn..I'm sorr..." Nathan is cut off by the spew of blood he vomits over Toki's face. His eyes roll to the back of his head and he falls onto Toki who tumbles underneath the weight.

" _Not eloquent at all_." Murderface looms over them, a bloodied, jagged knife in his hand. " _But efficient_." He drops the knife and holds his hand over Nathan's body. A red smoke rises out from the wound in his spine and into Murderface's hand. It only lasts a few seconds before it dissapates entirely. " _And now for the Angel_."

Murderface looks down at Toki who is partially hidden beneath Nathan's body. The pale in his face starkly contrasted by the bright splash of blood across his face and neck. His are eyes pinpricks and he does not seem to be breathing.

" _You've made it so simple for me, for this I thank you._ " Murderface holds his palm out over Toki's head. Nothing happens. No one speaks. No one breathes. Then a pulse emits from Toki. 

It's a soft thud that reaches only as far as Murderface's feet. Then another. This one further. Then another. This one much stronger, causing Murderface to trip backwards and Orlaag to fall on his ass a couple feet away.

Toki begins to rise as if plucked up by the back of his shirt until he is out from underneath Nathan and slightly hovering above the floor with only the tips of his toes touching the ground. His arms dangle at his sides and his hair clings to the blood on his face, obscuring his features.

"Master, has he..."

" _Yessssss._ " Murderface smiles. " _Come to me child of death. Your soul will join his inside me._ "

Toki's body hovers in place before slowly floating over Nathan's dead body and closer to Murderface who has his arms out in an open embrace.

" _Come_." The glee in his voice is barely containable. 

Toki is just within reach when he whispers, "Fucks you."

A splat of black erupts from Toki and Murderface and Vater are sent flying into walls. Vater's neck snaps and he is instantly dead, his body lying slump on the ground. Murderface hits the opposite wall with his back and stands almost as quickly as he was thrown. 

" _How dare you, that power belongs to me_."

Toki's arms and legs are now coated with an inky black oil that seems to be breathing and shifting across his skin. He straightens his head, his hair falling away from his face to reveal his once blue eyes are now silver, almost blending with the whites of his eyes. He holds out a hand and Murderface is lifted off the ground. Toki motions his hand left and Murderface is sent flying to the left wall. He motions his hand to the right and there goes Murderface. He attempts breaking free using his own power but can only manage not being killed as he's swung across like a ragdoll.

"Da fuck is goin' on?!"

Pickles, Skwisgaar, Abigail, and Klokateer 813 all stand at the end of the hall.

"Nathan?!" Abigail runs over to the bloodied body of the lead singer. She struggles to turn his body over and Pickles runs to help. When they manage to turn him face up, Abigail checks his pulse. The tears stinging her eyes say everything.

"It wasch Toki! The fucker killed him!" Murderface calls out. He crawls from out of a pile of debris and attempts to stand up.

Everyone's attention turns to Toki who up is still just floating midair, expressionless.

"Ams dis true Toki?" Skwisgaar approaches Toki. He can feel the strangeness in the air, how it crackles with dark energies. "Whys would you...you loves Natends." Toki's silver eyes meet Skwisgaar still ocean blue and sometime unravels inside of the older man. "Vad hände?" 

Toki raises a hand as if reaching out to Skwisgaar but instead, sends Abigail and Pickles barreling into him. He rises higher into the air and floats over to Nathan's body. He reaches down and brings the man into his arms and cradles him. He turns around and begins floating away.

"Comes back Toki!" Skwisgaar calls out. He pushes Pickles and Abigail off of him and starts to run after Toki when the walls bursts open to a flood of skeleton warriors.

"We don't have time!" Charles appears from behind a painting and starts dragging Abigail and Pickles into the space he'd just come through. "Skwisgaar let's go!"

Skwisgaar doesn't hear a word, he simply stands in front of the imminent wave of warriors, staring after the floating form of Toki. Nathan was dead? Toki was evil? What the fuck was happening?

"No time dude!" Murderface's arm latches onto Skwisgaar's middle and he drags the blonde to the space behind the painting just as the first skeletons reach them.


	6. Takin' It Easy

"Let gos of me Moidaface!" Skwisgaar rips himself away from the bassist but he's already inside when the doors close. 

"You're welcome!" Murderface spits. "I didn't just shave you from the legion of doom back there!"

"Nos, you fuckings pushed me into elevators!"

"Shame fucking difference you dickweed!"

"I'm going to need the two of you to calm down." Charles commands. He punches a code into the numeric pad next to him and the elevator shudders. It begins it's descent and everything else goes silent. 

Abigail is reminded of her kidnapping and has to look around to confirm she isn't back in that basement. She is met with the somber faces of three fifths of Dethklok and their former manager. The tension is so thick, she feels like it's being shoved down her throat.

"Murderface," her voice makes everyone flinch from it's suddenness. "What happened?"

"A lot." Murderface sighs. He rubs his hands against his face and realizes that his bandage is gone. He looks to his wound and finds only a star shaped scar is in its place.

"What ams wrong wits Toki? He ams not...Toki."

"An' Nate'n is fuckin' dead. How da fuck did dat happen Murderface?" Pickles grinds out, his fingers wildly tapping against his hip.

"I'm sorry, _what_?" Charles, like everyone else at this point, stares at Murderface.

"Itsh Toki. He killed Nathan and he was..."

"Bullshits!" Skwisgaar shouts, crowding Murderface's personal space. "Toki woulds never hurt Natends!"

"Yeah, well tell that to his dead body!" The bassist squares up to the lead guitarist. "Didya even shee Toki juscht now? Covered in gunk, floatin' in the fuckin' air like some fuckin' magician? Didya shee how fuckin'  _shouless_  his eyes were! I watched him shove a knife into Nathan's schpine and he didn't even blink!"

"An' da fuck were you doin' besides watchin'?!" Pickles closes in on other side of Murderface. "You didn't even bother ta stop..."

"I couldn't!" He yells. Flashes of an argument, of Toki screaming his name, of choking sounds, the smell of blood, all fill his mind and somewhere far away, a voice not his own. It hurts him just trying to piece together any of it. "He fuckin'...he's fucking lost it and now he's got schome bullshit magic powers!"

"So Toki has unlocked his Deth Light." Charles states plainly. 

The elevator stops at that exact moment, doors opening to the command center where two klokateers sit on the main console, pressing buttons and sending out codes through their headsets. Klokateer 813, who'd gone unnoticed the entire time, slips out of the elevator to join them.

"Death is not an end, I should know." Charles places himself at the threshold of the doors. "We will stop Selatcia and his army. We will rescue Toki from whatever darkness has a hold on him. And we will bring Nathan back."

"That's a...that's one helluva a to-do list chief."

"You are Dethklok, anything is possible."

\---

The screams of war echo throughout the halls of Mordhaus. The Gears are armed with the latest firearms, well trained and prepared to die but that seems to be their only fate. Seletcia's army storms through in waves, drenching the walls in blood, limbs, and organs. For every skeletal warrior felled, six more would rally in its stead. 

In the center of all this chaos was Toki Wartooth. His sliver eyes fixed straight ahead. Nothing can harm him, nothing can even touch him because whenever anything drew near, a splattering of black rises up around him to protect him. He continues through the battlegrounds unscathed until he reaches Nathan's bedroom. Or what was left of it.

The room is in tatters, everything upturned or smashed. The bed has only one of its four posts still standing and the sheets have been shredded into strips across the mattress. Toki, undeterred by the sight, floats across the room until he can lay Nathan's body gently onto the center of the bed.

He takes care to not let the living darkness on his fingers eat at Nathan's skin as he wipes the blood from his mouth and chin. He does not touch the blood on his own face and neck. When all but the deathly pallor is left on Nathan, Toki stills. 

Nathan's expression was soft. Softer than it had ever been in life even when he slept. It made him look years younger. Toki's eyes begin to sting and so he crawls into bed beside Nathan. He folds himself into Nathan's side and relishes the waning warmth of the body. 

"Natens, du sa at det ikke ville." Toki's voice is strange and hollow. He knows it is because of the power coursing through him. It's eating him alive, literally swallowing pieces of his soul. "Du sa at det ikke ville fungere."

He waits for Nathan to complain about waking him up, or for being annoying, or for just being a big fat baby-cry dildo but nothing actually happens. He just lays there, body unmoving, eyes unopened. 

_"I can bring him back."_

Toki sits up and searches the room for the source but finds he is still alone.

_"I need only power and he shall be yours again."_

"No." Toki recognizes the voice this time. "I ams going to kills yous."

_"You cannot kill me without first killing the rest of Dethklok. Including yourself."_

"Then I will kills Dethkloks."

"The fuck would you do that for?" 

"Natens!?" Toki's breath is stolen by the sight of Nathan who nows stare up at him, alive? He makes a face and sits up. He stretches his arms out and arches his back but stops abruptly. He brings a hand to the base of his spine where his shirt clings to his knife wound. He tugs at it and the squelching sound it makes turns Toki's stomach.

"Being dead fucking blows."

"You ams..." Toki stops. Nathan is glaring at him with dark emerald eyes that less than an hour ago were filled with something sweeter. Then he's raising his hand, palm up so Toki can see the tiny flecks of blood on his fingertips. He does not resist the urge to place his hand in Nathan's and their fingers interlock. 

"You know what you have to do to bring me back?"

"Ja."

"And all you need is a little help?"

"Ja."

"Then we can be together." Nathan squeezes Toki's hand and pulls him in. He closes the rest of the space between them with a kiss.

Everything is wrong. Nathan's lips are icy, his hands even colder, and there's no surge in Toki to collide with him. In fact, Toki feels like he's fallen into a pit he can't climb out of. He's forced onto his back as Nathan straddles him, pushing his hips into the mattress and holding his arms above his head. He can feel the darkness shifting across his skin, reaching out to consume Nathan's reanimated corpse. 

"Stops it!" Toki pushes Nathan away, pulling himself free of the black mess their bodies had created. "This ams not right!"

"Toki, I thought you wanted me."

"I dos! It ams...it doesn't feels goods. Not likes before."

"You mean, when I was alive?"

"No, not likes that...like..." Toki is floundering and Nathan's closing in on him. "It doesn'ts feel...it feels likes..."

"Like what Toki? Because I'm feeling a lot of things too.  Rejection, pissed, and a massive headache to name a few." Nathan is practically on top of Toki, this time his arms on either side of the smaller man to keep him in place.

"It doesn't feel like..." Toki's hand seeks out the space against Nathan's chest where his heart should be beating and feels absolutely nothing. No warmth. No breath. No heartbeat but worst of all, no devastating need to connect with him. "This ams wrong, you ams not him." Toki lets his hand fall back down his side.

_"You are cleverer than I first assumed."_

Nathan disappears into a wisp of smoke and Toki is left alone again with his corpse.

_"Give to me what belongs to me and I can end all of your suffering."_

Toki rises up from the bed, sparing one last look at Nathan's body. He reaches out to touch his face but stops when he realizes darkness now coats all of his arms, his legs, and slowly creeping across the rest of him.

"Jeg vil avslutte dett før det blir meg."

Toki floats across the room until he is standing in the hallway. He holds up his left hand as ooze collects above his head. It forms a flying v that he brings back down and plays in the lower range. Satisfied by the sound, he proceeds further into the hall where the cries of fighting become louder. 

The battle between undead and dying rages on as he floats through unharmed and unnoticed. That is until a smattering someone's intestines land near his foot. He curls his fingers against the frets accordingly and strums a harsh melody. 

Weapons clatter to the ground as skeletons burst into clouds of dust. The Gears still breathing left in shock, some still holding their weapons in mid attack.

"My lord!" Cries out a klokateer. He is missing an arm, his shoulder badly bandaged and dripping. "You saved us!" He raises the assault rifle in his remaining arm, setting off an outcry of cheers from the other Gears.

Despite this, all Toki can focus on is the amount of agony and suffering coming off these battle worn soldiers. His fingers slide across the strings of his guitar and play a soft melody, quieter than the earlier ballad but just as powerful. One by one, Gears begin to lay down, eyes closing, hearts stopping. Some gagging through the end of their life, some simply drop.

"Sir, why..." but the klokateer dies before he could ever possibly get an answer.

\---

"How?"

"Ja hows? Pickle and myselfs were tryings to find our spider bites and nothings but back pain."

"Spider...bites?"

"It's a spiderman reference." Abigail offers.

"Ah."

Charles is sitting at the center console, a Klokateer on either side of him, attempting to assess the damage of Mordhaus. They've lost about half the compound to the skeletal army. The other half is waning quicker than he hoped. Several of the automated defenses such as the laser canons still functioning were doing their part to keep the enemy at bay but once the warriors recuperated, they would take out the machinery as well. They needed more time that they just didn't have and at this rate, the only Gears left would be the three in this room with him. 

"Sir, you should take a look at this." 813 pulls him out of his thoughts, a giant screen already in front of him.

"That ams Tokis!" Skwisgaar rushes over alongside Abigail and Pickles.

"What's he doin'?"

The screen loads to a live feed of the main level of Mordhaus. It's currently overrun by Selatcia's army but they seem to be disappearing into mounds of powder. In the corner of the shot is Toki, hovering above them with his guitar. 

"Zoom in, isolate Toki." 

The image zooms, bringing Toki into clear focus. He is covered in moving darkness, his face the only thing visible amongst it. His sliver white eyes have no focus, only a distant stare void of emotion. 

"Where is the audio?"

"It's gone down sir." the Klokateer on Charles' left says.

"Well, whatever he's doin' it's workin'." Pickles points to a monitor which has a different angle of the same location. "He's literally pulverizin' them."

"That ams good ja? Toki ams saving..."

"Sir." 813 loads another screen, moving the close up of Toki over. This is of the Gears. They appear to be swaying, staring up at Toki who is still just playing guitar. When the last of the skeletons dissipates, the Gears stop swaying. Then they drop. All at once and into piles on the floor. Some writhe and seize while others reach out with their hands as if pleading for help. It doesn't last long before they join the others in lying still on the floor.

" _Oh Toki._.." Abigail covers her mouth to stop the rest of the cry from escaping her lips.

"What ams wrong withs you, what ams wrong?! You ams killing everythings!" Skwisgaar is yelling at Toki's image on the screen, as if by some stroke of technological magic Toki would hear him and stop everything he is doing.

Charles turns to address the klokateers in the room. "Retreat. Anyone still alive and able to move, tell them to retreat."

"Sir where?"

"Anywhere. Take to the hills, jump off the cliffs, abandon Mordhaus."

"But sir, we are the Gears, we...."

"Yes but you're up against Gods now." Charles rises from his seat and turns to face the remainder of Dethklok. "I need you to unlock your powers... _now_."

"Dood, we already told ya we dunno how!"

"You gotta look inshide yourshelfs." Murderface, up until this point, had been completely silent. He'd been leaning against the far wall with his hands in his pockets, quietly watching.

"Elaborate William, is there something you are not telling us?" Charles reproaches.

"Allow me to schow you." He moves away from the wall and takes his customary bass playing stance. He closes his eyes and bobs his head to a song only he can hear as everyone in the room awkwardly looks on.

"Dood, stop fuckin'..." But Pickles quiets when he sees the black smoke begin to form around Murderface. It collects and swirls until there is a bass guitar in his arms and a deep rhythm is playing. 

"Oh look, a fucking magic trick. Ja, that'll save us all."

Murderface smirks and plays a different chord. The note pulses through the small chamber and strikes Skwisgaar, sending the blond back onto his ass.

"Fucks you Moidaface!" Skwisgaar scrambles to stand up. "Shows me how to dos that an' I bet I can kick you ass!"

"Take it easchy buddy, feel it in your shoul an' play." 

"Very wells." 

Skwisgaar clenches his jaw but spreads his legs in a classic power stance. He holds his arms out like he's holding his guitar and forces himself to imagine the instrument. He can hear every chord, every note, every string. He can feel it all forming into a song inside him. So he strums.

A screech erupts from his chest and he opens his eyes. In his arms now lays a guitar, much like his Thunderhorse, but pure white with visible charges of electricity flowing around it. He smiles and plays a fast arpeggio, aiming it at Murderface who is already prepared for the attack with a strum of his own. Electricity collides with black smoke and there's a fizzle as their powers negate one another.

"Fuck yeah, my turn!" 

Pickles digs into his back pocket where he keeps a spare set of drumsticks at all times. He glances up at Murderface, silently asking if this was the right way and gets a nod from the bassist. He closes his eyes and holds his hands out. He can hear it. He could always hear it but he always assumed it was a side effect of the drugs he taken and systematically ignored it. The wild drums that beat far, far away in the back of his head and heart. The same drum beat that forced him to leave Snakes and Barrels and brought him to Dethklok in the first place. He concentrates on it now until he can perfectly match the rhythm with his drumsticks. He pantomimes an entire bar before he feels the thunder clap. He opens his eyes and there's nothing. He strikes the air in front of him and there's another thunderclap. 

_"Doooood, invisible drum kit!!!"_ He begins to play what is most certainly the heaviest drum solo in his entire life and career but has to stop halfway through as the ground beneath his feet quakes and makes everyone stumble and fall. "Sahrry." He offers with a cheeky grin.

"No, this is great." Charles says, picking himself up. 

He goes back to the main console and types in a few codes. A layout of Mordhaus is prompted on the screen in front of him and zooms into the section where they'd just seen Toki.

"This means we can finally fight back. Murderface and Skwisgaar, the two of you are going to head here." He loads a screen where there are actually more klokateers than skeletons. "Toki seems to be heading in this direction. Cut him off through that passage." He points to a door at the opposite end of the room. "Abigail, you and 887 will evacuate..."

"No. I said this before." Abigail crosses her arms. It was hard to feel anything near intimidating in her tank top and shorts but she was not playing damsel in distress. Not again. Not ever. "I'm fighting. I got caught off guard last time, but this time? This time I'm going to kick some ass, even if it kills me."

"Fine." Now was not the time to argue thoight Charles. "You'll come with Pickles and myself to find General Crozier. He is somewhere here." He loads up another screen, this one an exterior shot of the grounds. At first glance, it looks to be rolling grey waves but two clicks later, it turns out to be a swarm of skeletons crawling out from beneath the earth. "If he has any control over them, we must stop him or if we can seal their entrance..."

"Loud and clear Chief." Pickles salutes with his drumsticks.

"Thank you." Charles nods his head. He turns to the Klokateers. "813, 887, 245, I want you to maintain a visual on us at all times. Record and save onto a master copy, something indestructible. If we die tonight, our story will be told and the Church of the Black Klok will do what it must. And if we are the victors, our stories will be passed on."

"Yes sir." the three Klokateers respond in unison.

"Everyone, I know we said our farewells before but..."

"Charles, I hate to cut you off sweetie but I was promised some skull bashing." Abigail is standing with her arms crossed by a door with Pickles. Skwisgaar and Murderface already running through their assigned exit.

"Yes well, let's get you a gun at least."

\---

Skwisgaar thought he could do it but he didn't have the upper body strength. Instead he held Abigail up by her left shoulder while Pickles held up her right. Nathan was the one who held Toki. He held him in his arms like one would a small child because as Toki slipped in and out of consciousness, that's just how small he'd become. No one breathed a word. Not even Murderface whose wound was beginning to pus. They only ran.

They ran the two miles out to where a Dethchopper was waiting for them. Charles inside because he knew all along they would succeed. And in the chopper, Nathan still held Toki. Closer now because he had to sit in a seat and had to place Toki's head against his shoulder. Toki's legs laid across his lap and his feet in Pickles' lap because he sat down next to them. 

Pickles reaches over and braids the boy's hair so it would sit neatly against Nathan's chest. Said he needed to do something with his hands because he lost his pack of smokes a while back. Nathan only nods and stares straight ahead. Toki's breath was faint but he could feel it against his throat and that was the only thing he could actually focus on.

Abigail assures Charles that she is fine. That her wound was shallower than it looked. That all she wanted was a bath and a bottle of wine. Charles insists that the Dethnurses on board take a look at her, Murderface, and Toki. 

It isn't until Charles puts his hand on Nathan's free shoulder that Nathan realizes someone is speaking to him. Their eyes meet and Charles promises that Toki will be in the makeshift infirmary on the other side of the chopper, heavily guarded. Abigail adds the promise of coming to get if him if Toki wakes up.

When it's just the three of them, Nathan, Pickles, and Skwisgaar, Nathan closes his eyes and knocks his head back against the hull of the chopper. The other two are talking but he's not going to listen. Why was this happening again? This already happened. He already lived through this. 

He opens his eyes and he is in Mordhaus. He's standing outside one of the five recovery rooms in the infirmary wing, looking through the door's window. He can see that Toki lying in bed, eyes closed, with Abigail curled against him. She is running her hand through his hair and whispering something. He watches them, not saying a word. He hasn't said a word since they made it back. He doesn't know what time it is but his body is weary but also on fire and also ready to fight and also, really, really, tired. 

Abigail looks up and her green eyes meet his through the glass. She motions for him to come in so he does. She is talking to him, saying something really important but he can only look at Toki who doesn't have his eyes open yet. 

Abigail is now standing in front of him, blocking his view of Toki. She is beautiful, even in the starchy gray hospital gown, and she kisses him. Why was this happening again? This already happened. He already lived through this.

" _And I will meet you all in the next life..._ " Pickles is singing. They're in concert. The energy is amazing. The fans are going apeshit. Toki's back, Dethklok is back.

" _The blazing star, it burns so bright!_ "

The sky is on fire. 

" _NATENS"_

Nathan wakes up. It was a dream. He was dreaming. All that stuff already happened. Things were going to go back to normal now that Toki was back in the band. Fucking stress he thinks as he rips the bed sheets off of his body. He moves over to the edge of the bed and sits up.

Something is off. The room feels empty. He looks around and starts a mental inventory. Dresser, check. Mirror, check. Stereo, check. Night stand, check. Toki? Nathan turns back to look at the rest of his king size bed and finds it devoid of rhythm guitarist. 

Maybe he woke up early? Or maybe he's bunking with Abigail, they seemed inseparable lately. He wasn't going to panic. Why should he, he thinks. But Nathan is up and heading for the door before he can convince himself not to go to Abigail's room to double check.

"Jeg beklager!"

Nathan is running. He has to get to Toki. Someone is hurting Toki. The hallways of Mordhaus have never looked more endless.

"Jeg beklager Natens, jeg beklager!!!"

"Toki!" Nathan shouts. It's pitch black and the stone walls were caving, closing in on him. Or was that the panic kicking in? "Toki, I'm coming!!!"

_Nathan, stop this._

Everything goes black. He stops moving. His eyes are closed? Or is it so dark that he can't tell?

_Arise Nathan._

"I am up." He says because he is. He is back inside his room. Standing by his bed in his tshirt and boxers. He was getting ready for bed. Right?

_Arise Nathan._

"I want to go to sleep."

_Arise Nathan._

"Who are you?!"

_Toki will be swallowed whole and Selatcia will win._

"What did you do to Toki!? I will fucking kill you if that kid has even a hair missing from his fucking head!!!"

_Save him from the monster inside, save them all._

"How?"

_Arise._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Natens, du sa at det ikke ville : Nathan, you said that it would not
> 
> Du sa at det ikke ville fungere : You said it would not work
> 
> Jeg vil avslutte dett før det blir meg : I want to end this before it gets me
> 
> Jeg beklager : I'm sorry


	7. The Search Party

Toki. He remembers Toki. His smiling face asking him something. Then nothing. Then screaming. Then blood. Then Nathan kicking the living shit out of him.

Murderface adjusts the strap of his guitar, allowing him to lift his shirt. He finds nothing out of the ordinary; no bruising, no cuts. Nothing but the hairy pudge he's grown to both detest and embrace. When he rolls his shirt back down, he realizes Skwisgaar has gotten quite ahead of him so he forces himself to run faster and catch up.

  
Toki. That's the only clear thought in his head. Toki's silver eyes staring lifelessly ahead.

  
Something _must've_ happened. Toki was psycho yeah but killing Nathan was so far removed from what he had ever expected of the younger man. If he could kill Nathan, who up until now he had the sinking suspicion Toki was fucking, where did that leave the rest of them? Where did that leave him?

  
"Moidaface, you fat fucks, I asked you a fucking questions!!!"

  
"What?!" Murderface spits. He hadn't heard Skwisgaar talking to him until he was standing in the middle of the hall physically stopping him from going further.

  
"What happened to Toki?"

  
"I told you, I have no Idea. He juscht fucking shnapped."

  
"There ams a reason he dids, ams de reason you?"

  
"Me?! I didn't do shit!"

  
Skwisgaar stands with his guitar at the ready, staring down the shorter man. In the poor lighting he can make out the dark circles under Murderface's eyes and the sweaty pallor to his skin.

  
"My gut tells me otherwises Moidaface. You knows, don'ts you? What ams it?"

  
Murderface attempts once more to collect his thoughts to give Skwisgaar an answer, at least one that made sense beyond the foggy images rolling around his head. He instead feels a sudden wave of nasuea and lets it take hold, doubling over and vomiting.

  
"Ughh." Skwisgaar grimaces, stepping back out of the splat zone. He watches Murderface vomit bile for a few seconds before looking away. He hoped the others were fairing better.

 

* * *

  
The sea churns black. Swells of murky waters crash against the cliff bottoms, each wave stronger than the last, dragging the bodies of fallen warriors into itself. The battle continues on above the cliffs but below is desolate. Except for the three running along the shoreline. Charles, Abigail, and Pickles, all focused on the task at hand, racing through wet sand hellbent on pulling them under with every step.

  
The plan was simple. Cross completely unseen until they reached a path. There they would climb the side of the cliffs onto the battlefield, near Crozier's last known location.

  
"Are we there yet?" Pickles calls out. He stops running but only long enough for him to remove his sand-laden sneakers and chuck them into the ocean.

  
"Just a little further." Charles points his scimitar in the direction of an outcropping of rocks. It was Abigail's idea, as the only humans without super powers, they carry weapons that wouldn't need reloading.

  
"That's...possible?" Abigail stops running to stare up at the jagged formation. To call it a path was giving it a lot of credit. It was more like the remains of a rock slide that allowed the sheer cliffs to give enough to make an indent.

  
"It has sufficient enough escalation to make a relatively safe climb up."

  
" _Relatively_?"

  
"We don't really have a lot of options right now."

  
"Course we do." Pickles smirks, interrupting the two. "Stay here." He jogs ahead of them, a smile across his face. He pulls out his drumsticks and spins them in each hand before slamming them down. The resounding crash causes rocks to break away and begin to fall.

  
"Pickles watch out!" Abigail makes a mad dash to save Pickles from being crushed underfoot but stops when she realizes the rocks are falling not onto the sand but against the cliifside itself. They tumble and roll as Pickles continues to play a steady rhythm of rat-tat-rat-tat-tat-tat until they form into stairs. Crude and jagged, some much further out than others, but stairs nonetheless.

  
"Fuck yeah." Pickles smiles, and jumps onto the first step. "C'mon, we got a douchbag to stop."

 

* * *

 

  
"Like I schaid..."

 

"You fucking knows something Moidaface, how do I knows it ams not you that what killed Natends. You ams de most jealous person..."

  
"It wasch not me!" But at these words the image of a knife flashes across his eyes. It's bloody. It's in his hand but he lets it fall. "I don't know what happened! Let's juscht get to Toki and schtop him huh? He'sch the one running around killing people right now!" He brushes pass Skwisgaar.

  
His head is spinning, his eyes hurt and something is clawing at the back of his head but fuck Skwisgaar because he has nothing to do with this! He's the fucking victim here. Toki killed Nathan in front of him and he couldn't remember all the details because that's what you do, isn't it? You repress this kind of shit. That's what Twinkletits told him about his parents' deaths, he repressed it. Just like he was repressing the events that led to Nathan's death. And instead of being left alone to drink this shit all away, he was out chasing the killer with fucking super powers.

  
"I'm keepings my eyes on you Moidaface." Skwisgaar warns, having already caught up to him. The bass player gives him a sidelong glance but doesn't say a word. That in itself unsettles Skwisgaar because it was utterly un-Murderface like to just shut up.

  
For both their sakes there is little tunnel left. There is only a stone wall and a keypad. Skwisgaar punches in 666 and a section of wall moves asides to reveal a darken hall. The two men cross over, the section closing behind them almost immediately.

  
They are inside the great hall. Or rather, _one of_ the great halls. Skwisgaar is fairly certain this was the one they used to greet Murderface's birthday guests a few years back. It takes only a few more seconds for their eyes to adjust to the dark and they are greeted by a pitiful sight.

  
The marble flooring with expensive carpeting is now litered with bodies. Klokateers lie in rows of five on the ground. Some alive but too weak to do more than breathe heavily. Others dead, denoted by their arms crossed over their chests. If they still had arms to cross.

  
"Did Toki..."

  
"Doesn't matters." Skwisgaar steps over the body in front of him. He can _almost_ ignore the squelch of congealed blood but he is still barefoot. "Which way did Charles says..."

  
There's a loud thump followed by a string of expletives. The two men turn their attention to the figure down the hall. It's small and hard to make out but it's moving towards them, dragging along what looks like a body three times it's size.

  
"Hey!" Murderface calls out, much to Skwisgaar's dismay. The figure stops moving and turns to face them. Something catches the light and there's a familiar shimmer. Then a hail of bullets.

  
"Jeeshus fuck!" Murderface wheezes.

  
Skwisgaar's reflexes, as fast as his guitar playing, had Murderface and himself lying flat on their stomachs.

  
"We ams Dethkloks! Don't shoots!" He shouts.

  
"Yeah we're the good guys man!"

  
The bullets stop. Both men look up and are confronted with a shimmering codpiece inches from their face.

  
"We ams looking for Tokis."

  
"That way." 215 points his rifle to the right. "Heading south."

  
"Thanks." Skwisgaar offers. The gun is still pointed in his face but 215 hasn't pulled the trigger. Yet. He looks over to Murderface whose face of disgust is almost comical but he swats him on the shoulder. "We ams leaving now.

  
The two men get up from off the floor and slowly make their way over to the archway 215 directed them. Skwisgaar holds up his guitar as an added sign of surrender. It isn't until 215 disappears behind the corner that they breathe a sigh of relief.

  
"The fuck wasch that about?! We're his fucking boss!"

  
"Ja but one of him bosses ams killing everyone so fucks that, you know?"

This answer seems to satisfy Murderface because he says nothing else. They continue down the hall, wary of any sound or movement. Outside the safety of the tunnel they'd have to contend with not only Toki but those skeletal douches.

 

* * *

 

"How many of these douchebags are there!?" Pickles shouts over the pile of bone dust.

"Too many." Abigail responds, swinging her sword through the necks of two warriors that assumed they could creep beside her.

"We need to focus our attacks and just drive our way through to Crozier." Charles states after masterfully dispatching five warriors in one graceful spin. He may have become the high priest but the fight hadn't died inside him just yet.

"Where is he!?"

"Not far." Charles looks over the masses of skeletal warriors. When they made it over the cliff, they were fortunate enough to be away from the real fighting. The warriors present here were simply milling about in formation, waiting. Crozier was near because he could feel the immense power being exerted.

"I have another idea, just tell me where."

"There." Charles points east of them.

Pickles turns his body in the correct direction and brings his drumsticks out at his sides. He closes his eyes. Concentrating, he can feel the earth beneath him. The _entire_ fucking earth. From the trampling metal boots of the skeletons to water tugging at the sand to the man all the way in China digging out the weeds in his vegetable garden. It's overwhelming to say the least but also intoxicating. A high like none other. And this time it's technically natural.

He strikes his drumsticks in a familiar pattern. It only takes a second for Charles to realize he's playing the drums for Thunderhorse and no sooner does he think that than the ground around Pickles feet erupts upwards, lifting the drummer about a foot higher on a solid platform of earth.

"Alright guys," Pickles talks over his drumming, "Hop on and hold tight, gonna be reeealll bumpy."

Charles wastes no time in doing so. He tucks his sword into the sash of his robes and holds out his hand to Abigail.

"I'm not waking up am I?" She asks as she takes his hand and steps onto the platform.

"That would imply this is all a dream."

"There'd be more cats!" Pickles adds. He strikes his drumsticks together. One, two, and at three they're off! The platform thunders over an unseen path, not unlike a true viking steed.

"Holy shit!" Abigail gasps, catching herself from falling by grabbing a handful of Pickles' shirt. Everything around them becomes a blur of colors and bits of dirt kicked up by their ride. The skeleton warriors barely have time to respond before they've pass them.

"Charles, what exactly am I lookin' for?"

"A fissure. A crack in the ground Crozier is using to bring forth the Legion of the Half Man."

"So somethin' like dat?"

Pickles is referring to the wall of skeletal warriors in the horizon. They're much larger than previous ones, in bulkier armor, and they stand shoulder to shoulder. A solid barricade that goes on for about a mile. Behind them is a pulsating light from the split in the earth.

"Yes."

"Well, here we go." Pickles picks up the beat, drumming a sucession of half notes. The platform rises up higher and the barricade comes in closer and closer. Just when he can see their eyeless sockets, Pickles strikes the symbol. The ground gives way and several warriors literally fall to pieces allowing for Pickles, Abigail, and Charles to coast through onto the otherside.

"You can park it here." Charles jumps off the platform. At once he has his scimitar out and deflecting the crashing of a great axe meant for his head.

"Plan on leaving some for me?" Abigail jumps down to help Charles push back the warrior before both drive their blades into it's chest.

"Of course. I go left and you right." They pull their swords in either direction, ripping the warrior in two.

"I call dibs on the middle." Pickles pounds out a _rat-ta-rat-tiss_ and his platform sinks back into the ground.

"That won't be necessary." A new voice emerges somewhere behind the oncoming surge of skeletal warriors. Twenty in all, orge-like skeletons with maces, part in the center to a single man in green.

"General Crozier."

* * *

 

"Sho whatsch the plan?"

"What?"

"Whatsch the plan to shtop Toki?"

They'd been wandering the halls aimlessly and still no sign of Toki. Only bodies and bones, a puddle of organs here and there. Murderface was begining to think they could just hide out and wait for this whole apocalypse thing to blow over.

"Simples. We kicks him ass."

"Right." Murderface snorts.

"You gots problems withs that?"

"Do I have a problem with your plan? Yeah. Yeah I do."

"Ja, what ams dat?"

"We're not just fighting Toki, we're fighting _evil > Toki with shuperpowers!"_

"We haves super powers too."

"Yeah but Toki is still batshit. Even if we stop him, he's one too many cookies missing to keep around."

"Moidaface, what cookies has to do withs this? We kicks his ass, you know, slap him around to gets him back to normals."

"You paint such a vivid picture my friend."

Skwisgaar spares the bassist a glare before turning away.

"Alls I'm saying ish, we might have to kill Toki..." Murderface is cut off by the sudden disappearance of his personal space.

"No ones ams killings Toki excepts me."

"Okay, okay." Murderface holds his hands up. Skwisgaar has a fistful of his shirt and looking ready to beat him. "Easche up."

Skwisgaar grunts but releases the shorter man. He turns away, flexing his knuckles. He walks towards a random doorway, uncaring if Murderface follows.

"Itsch not like I actually _want_ to kill him." Murderface mutters. Which was true. He didn't actually want to kill Toki. He wanted to go back in time and skip Cornickleson's funeral. That's what started this whole mess. The attack, the kidnapping, and the fans hating them for not having Toki. It wasn't like they didn't want him around, it was just....well it was just like what the fuck were they supposed to do? They were just a bunch of jack-offs with a little too much money. They barely rescued him alive and now they had to contemplate his continued existence _and_ save the fucking world? Man, fuck that!

"Do you hears that?" Skwisgaar's voice cuts into Murderface spiraling inner monologue.

"Huh?" Murderface looks around. He doesn't actually hear anything other than his own breathing. He goes to say as much but Skwisgaar is already holding up his hand.

"Listens, I thinks we haves been following it this whole times."

Murderface once more tries to argue but he realizes he _can_ hear something. A melody. It was familiar as it was sickening, drawing them in.

"Toki!"


	8. Are We Dead Yet?

"Charles Foster Offdensen. Abigail Remeltdrinc. Pickles." At the drummer's name, Crozier visibly grinds his teeth. "A pleasure you could see this before you are terminated."

General Crozier is pale, much paler than the last time Charles had seen him, and frail. His skin is papery thin against his cheeks and he has dark circles under his eyes. He is holding one bony arm away from his body, drawing their attention to the fissure behind him. It was not disimiliar to a small canyon with the exception of the violet light pulsing up from the depths. And clawing at the ledge with their bony fingers were more warriors, crawling out quite literally from the pit.

"General, are you even remotely aware of what you are bringing about?"

"I am." Crozier's eyes flash a dark red only to fade back. "In fact, quite aware."

"Looks like someone's been in da pool a lil too long there." Pickles whispers ratherly loudly at Abigail who tries hard not to roll her eyes.  
"General, I am afraid I will only give you one warning before..."

"Before what? You end me? Don't you realize I am the one in command of my Master's army? Don't you realize that at this very moment, every single, finite detail, is going exactly to his plans! Dethklok will be..." Crozier stops.

He's choking, gagging as if he hadn't been breathing this entire time and his body finally caught up. Beneath him on one knee is Abigail, her sword driven through his stomach.

"A...attack." Crozier manages before blood rises up from his throat and dribbles out of his mouth. He reaches for Abigail but she pulls back, taking her sword with her. He falters but still smiles when he sees the swarm of warriors surround the three.

"I've always hated villanous monologues." Abigail swings her sword to the left, catching the throat of the closest skeleton. "Especially when they're only the hench men."

"I know what ya mean." Pickles is behind Abigail, drumming a _ba-da-ba-da-tiss_ that causes spikes of earth to erupt around him and strike armored shins.

"Well, this should make things easier for us all." Charles slices the head of one warrior and heads directly to Crozier. The older man steps back. He has one hand on the gushing wound in his adomen and the other fumbling for the gun in his waistband.

Their eyes meet and Charles can taste the hate seething from the General's beady little eyes. It only makes what he does next that much more satisfying. With his free hand, Charles places it against Crozier's forehead and shoves. The older man cries out as he loses his footing.

"Enjoy the fall."

"Oooh, that's punny Chief."

"I couldn't resist." Charles shrugs his shoulders.

"Hey! You guys gonna let me do all the work?!" Abigail shouts. She is standing on a pile of armor and bones, attempting to dislodge her sword. While they managed to dispatch quite a few, more surge towards them from all sides.

"Shit. Gettin' rid of Colonel Douchebag only made these fuckers come faster." Pickles uses his bare foot to smash the skull of a warrior just barely making its way out of the fissure.

"Well," Abigail gasps, freeing her sword only to use it's hilt to bash in a warrior's helmet. "Besides smashing in heads until we are completely overcome by exhaustion, I am fresh out of ideas."

"We gotta spackle this sucker up." Pickles plays a short drum roll, causing a row of new warriors to fall back into the pit. It gives him an idea and he begins playing the steady drum beat to Impeach God. It causes the ledge to grow spikes or give way randomly, stopping the most of the skelatal warriors from making it over the edge.

"You're right Pickles. We need to seal this rift somehow but we would need a power stronger, if not equal to the power that summoned it in the first place."

"I'm not arguing with you on that Chief but where we gettin' that kinda juice?"

"We need the rest of Dethklok." Charles turns to Pickles and Abigail. "Our only hope is that Murderface and Skwisgaar were able to stop Toki and are on their way here."

"Ok. So Charles, you take the 30,000 on the left, I take 30,000 on the right and Pickles, you can get the ones that slip pass?"

Abigail wants to laugh so hard at the sheer absurdity of her fitting in a Buffy quote but honestly, there's no time. She sends a silent prayer to the Gods of Metal that the rest of the band comes through. _They did before._

 

* * *

 

Skwisgaar's bare feet fly across the bloodied floors. The melody grows louder and the ache in his chest swells. It was Toki. It had to be! Somewhere behind him he can make out the sounds of Murderface's boots clunking but he doesn't care. He runs until he has to catch himself against the moulding of an archway.  
He is at the south entryway of Mordhaus. A large circular room with windows that went from floor to ceiling and looks out into the back of the property. The room was normally empty but in this moment it was full of piles of ash and klokateers. Twenty standing in a ring, swaying to and fro in complete synchronization, mesmerized by the spectre floating in the very center.

"Toki!" Skwisgaar calls out. "Vad som är fel med dig?!"

Toki does not respond, only his eyes travel across the room to land on Skwisgaar. There's no indication that he even recognizes him but Skwisgaar is compelled to stare back.

When Skwisgaar first saw him, only Toki's arms and legs were coated in living darkness but now the only thing visible was his face.

"Toki, stoppa detta." Skwisgaar demands quietly. He can feel his feet moving on their own accord towards him. "We gots to stop these dildos what ams trying to destroys de worlds."

Toki plays a soft note and it strikes Skwisgaar.

Swiskgaar is inundated with vivid memories. He is a child trapped in snow, wounds on his back bleeding onto the endless white. He feels a hunger so strong in his stomach that it might as well be eating itself. He feels an emptiness, abandon, worthlessness. He curls into himself to ride out the wave of agony but now somehow he is older. The emptiness still present as well as hunger but now there is loneliness and he is wet and cold and he can hear the mewling of cats. Then he is drunk, incapable of understanding which way is up or down and he can't feel his feet as they dangle from a roof and still the emptiness prevails. But then there's something new. Warm and comforting, a welcoming glow. Skwisgaar edges into this feeling, the sounds of fans cheering and amplifiers screeching death metal and the feeling intensifies. He can hear a familiar voice. It's calling out to him, seeking him out and he follows it until he realizes it's Nathan.

Skwisgaar is on his knees and so is Nathan. He looks sick and seems to be fighting an invisble force as he claws at his own throat. Skwisgaar reaches out but there are chains twisted around his arms. He pushes harder but the chains only grow tighter and now there's a shackle around his throat. He hears himself screaming but it's not his voice, it's Toki's. This was all Toki. And Nathan is rapidly dying right in front of him but all he can do is watch.

"Eat thish!" Murderface's voice tears into the vision and Skwisgaar is thrown onto the ground, his guitar just outside his reach. The room is spinning, he's sure of it or he wouldn't be so fucking nauseated but Toki is screaming _so he has to get up nows._

"I kills yous!"

"Fucking try it!"

Murderface plays a complex set of notes, something Skwisgaar would have never in a fuckton of years ever expect the bassist capable of. He turns over on the floor to watch as smokes surrounds Toki only for the younger man to retaliate with a similar procession of notes. Tar like darkness crawls up from the stone floors, in between the crack like it had always lived there. The notes between the two begin to harmonize and build into a crescendo as either power inks out across the floor to meet in the middle. Unlike when Skwisgaar's electricity negated Murderface's power, Toki's darkness melts into the smoke and swirls upwards forming a pillar of black. The music intensfies and Skwisgaar feels his organs vibrate from the magic.

He eyes his guitar lying innocuous on the ground and snatches it up. He plays the first thing that comes to mind. An appreggio of much higher notes. Lightning fills the already crowded room and bounces off the glass of every window until it crashing into the pillar, dissapating the entire thing.

"He dids it. He kills Natans." Toki shrieks.

"I shaw you drive the knife into hish back!" Murderface plays a quick progession but Toki deflects it with one of his own.

"Lies! I would nevers hurts him!"

"Yeah but we all know you're fucking cursed, what wash that you shaid before? Everything you love dies!"

"Is nevers tolds anyones that but Natens!" Toki strikes a note but is stopped by a flash of lightning.

"Okays, I now ams very confuses. Who the fucks actually killed Natends?" Skwisgaar calls out.

"Him!" Toki slams his hand against his guitar sending out a horrific wail directly at Murderface. This time, he lowers his bass, taking the hit into his chest, the darkness harmlessly seeping into him.

" _I've waited enough._ " The words work their way out of Murderface's mouth, the syllables scraping the walls like debris caught inside an eyelid. There is no response as Skwisgaar is sent flying across the room. His back slamming into glass, leaving spiderweb fractures in it.

" _You too shall return to me what is mine_." Murderface holds out a hand towards Skwisgaar. His entire body shudders, sharp tendrils of pain ripping through his chest as sparks of electricity fizzle across his skin pitifully.

"Stops!" Toki screams, strumming a row of notes that cause a splat of darkness to strike Murderface in the neck. It does nothing but distract him enough to stop draining Skwisgaar and turn his attention back to Toki.

" _I've had enough of your interference_." Murderface raises a hand at Toki whose initial response is to play a hard melody but he stops abruptly. His eyes roll to the back of his head and he falls unceremoniously into a puddle of black.

"Did you fucking..." Skwisgaar grunts, struggling to pick himself up off the ground. "Kills him?"

" _I could but he is proving stronger than I expected. An amusing development that sadness could twist into armor_."

Murderface walks over to Skwisgaar but does nothing, only looks on as Skwisgaar shakily stands on two legs. His hair is a mess, covering half his face and his bare chest moves in time to an eradicate pattern of breathing. Their eyes lock.

" _You however will be simpler_." Once more Murderface raises his hand, palm facing Skwisgaar and begins to drain the world's fastest guitarist of his essence.

Skwisgaar doubles over, his entire body resisting but unsuccessfully. He feels like his limbs are being torn from their sockets and his organs are swelling. He wonders if this is what Nathan's felt before he died and then everything fades.

 

* * *

 

Everything was going well. As well as it could when surrounded by a hoarde of immortal skeleatal warriors could go. Until she was struck in the back of the head.

Stars filled her eyes and her legs forget how to stand. Abigail hit the ground but did not go unconscious. Instead she watched as the dark clouds above her doubled and spun in loops. Her sword was still clutched in hand but that's as much as she could do.

"Abigail!" Charles or maybe it was Pickles or both. They were calling to her. She'd lost track of them shortly after the third wave of warriors.

"Abigail! You must get up!"

"Get up Abigail!"

Their voices sounded wrong. Like she'd gone underwater and they were above the surface. Then something grabs her and she can't even fight it off but it's only Charles. He was attempting to pull her up off the ground. But what were those black spots around Charles, around everything?

"Fuck." She manages. A concussion is just what she needed in the middle of battle.

"Abigail." Her name is spoken clearly and not at all by Charles. "Be brutal."

All of her senses return tenfold. Every cell in her body surging with a fresh dose of adrenline, forcing her to stand with her sword at the ready.

"Abigail, are ya...." Pickles is cut off by the barbaric death screech that Abigail releases before heading directly into a throng of Skeletal Warriors.

Pickles and Charles look on as Abigail drives her blade into the first two warriors she comes across, effectively skewering them. She turns the blade and yanks out the sword only to sink it into the chestplate of another. There is resistance from this warrior as he holds the blade in his bony hands but she only brings up her legs onto either side of his torso. She pulls the sword free using the momentum to backflip onto the shoulders of another warrior. She slams the pommel of her sword into his skull and as he begins to crumble she leaps sword-first into the oncoming mass of skeletons.

"Aw man I got a boner da size of Philadelphia."

"She is indeed both arousing and terrifying."

"Murderface!" Abigail bellows. She stands on a pile of bones, her sword pointed north. Her hair whips wildly in the wind, her eyes bright against the dark curls. Her tank top, now tattered, sticks to her sweat soaked skin and exposes her wound that has long since lost its bandaging. Both men are hardpressed to look away but they cannot ignore the metal.

Billows of an opaque mass cascade across the distance at an alarming rate, swallowing everything into itself. Bass notes rumble alongside in a melody that carries only ill omen.

"It actually sounds like Swisk. Those notes are too fast..."

"Pickles, build defenses. I think our enemy has finally revealed themselves."

"Fuckin' knew it. Can't fuckin' trust..." but Pickles doesn't finish his rant and instead plays a rapid beat that allows the earth to rise up in thick sheets of stone, encircling the space around him and Charles. Abigail leaps into the circle just as it closes.

"We're not dead yet." Abigail says as she spins her sword from one hand into the other.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Vad som är fel med dig?!" : "What is wrong with you?!"
> 
> "Toki stoppa detta!" : "Toki, stop that!"


	9. Opening Act

It lasts for only a moment. A second. Maybe less. His hands are the only thing keeping his face from smashing into the floor. His eyes are closed because the pain running through him makes it impossible for him to even see. He can hear Toki's guitar. Something dramatic, full of complicated note progressions he was sure Toki was incapable of arranging. He can also hear Murderface's bass droning in, attempting to drown Toki's. But it ends abruptly when the chords switch and there is a scream. It's Murderface's own voice this time, a nasally wretched cry that brings with it a gust of wind filled with tiny pinpricks that scrape along Skwisgaar's skin.

It grows silent. Skwisgaar lets himself lower onto the floor regardless of debris and just lay there. He’s fucking tired and now was a great time to take a nap.

"Wakes the fucks up." Or not. Something is kicking him in the stomach.

"I ams fuckings up!" Skwisgaar grabs at the offending leg only to yank himself away from the sticky substance met. Finally opening his eyes, he is met with the expressionless Toki Wartooth. His white eyes even more unsettling up close. "Toki?"

Skwisgaar pushes himself off the ground, swiping the bits of glass and debris off of him, his chest aching with every move. He checks for injuries and while nothing is broken or bleeding, he finds a purple marring on his skin. It traces along like vines blossoming from his sternum and branching out until his fingertips.

"He stoles yous dethlight but yous still has power." Toki's voice breaks his scrutiny He makes a small gesture with his hand and Skwisgaar is presented with his guitar. It hovers expectantly in front of him, pristine. He takes it and instinctively plays the first thing that comes to mind. A flurry of notes, rapidly forming an intense melody. Electricity flows through him, even stronger than before. Despite the ache in his chest he feels amazing. Invincible even. He looks up to tell Toki as such but finds him floating through a broken window. He stops playing.

"Toki waits. I needs to know somethings."

"I didn'ts kills him."

"Don't answers me before I even finish askings " Skwisgaar calls out. "What ams you, you ams not..." he hesitates then because Toki hasn't actually stopped moving. He hovers in place with his head only slightly turned so that Skwisgaar can just make out the side of his face. There is no light, only grey clouds filling the sky, casting Toki in shadows. It strikes Skwisgaar like a giant fucking dildo across the face that this is where Toki has always been. "Du ar morket."

"Nei." Toki turns his head back and starts to straighten up. His arms extend from either side of him. Skwisgaar readies himself for an attack but when none comes he realizes just what Toki is hovering over. Bodies. Bodies upon bodies of the dead.

"Pfft, you ams so melodramatikals." Skwisgaar scoffs.

He makes a running start towards Toki and leaps into the air. Instead of coming down, he stays in place, higher than Toki so that he can smugly look down at him.

"Stops being suchs a sads lady." He strikes a chord and the resulting note shatters the air around them in a cloud of visible electricity that catches in his hair and alights his face. He watches with glee as Toki's eyes widen in awe.

"Why dids you kills them Klokateers? They ams on our side."

"Their voices ams inside my heads, all of them. They keeps screamings how much they wants the sweet release of death and so I gaves it to thems."

"What about Natends, did he..."

"No but...I lets him die. If hes hadn't...if..."

"Stops it!" Skwisgaar shouts. "There ams no times now to be crybabys I ams Gods now Toki so lets go helps Pickle beat this motherfucker, whoever the fucks he ams, bring backs Natends, and saves de fucking worlds."

A look crosses Toki that for a moment causes the sludge to slowly slide off his face and blue to return to his irises. He begins to play his guitar, a familiar yet far off song that stirs Skwisgaar.

"Oh Tokis, I ams still the guitar god." Skwisgaar starts to play the recall. The two trade vamping riffs as they set off in the direction of a swelling black cloud.

* * *

He is surrounded by black waters, cold and numbing. He is home. There is a strange pressure on his chest from the lack of oxygen but he doesn't need it. Not anymore. He swims forward, wide strokes, relishing the sensation of moving through water.

Take back your Light.

The Water Beast. She swims placidly in place, her massive form dwarfing him. She is fiercer, full of scars, than she had ever been in any of his dreams. She is beautiful. She is powerful. She is brutal.

They are ready.

He nods and a current swirls beneath him. A creature emerges from the depths with its fiery red eyes trained on him. It is a seahorse. A giant, glowing, nuclear green seahorse. He takes hold of the scales near its head. He can feel the music already playing on land.

They slice through the murky depths at supersonic speeds until they break the surface of the water. But they do not stop there. The seahorse screeches as it lurches upwards, towards land, towards the cliffs, up and over until it lands at the heart of a battle.

* * *

 

"Where is Skwisgaar? And Toki?" Charles calls out.

The dark cloud rumbles in front of them. It curls around their stone wall but goes no further. Somewhere inside they can make out the silhouette of Murderface.

"Skwishgaar'sh dead!"

"Yeah, you probably killed him ya douchbag!"

"Did not! It wasch Toki!"

"Oh yeah?! And how come you're still alive?!"

"Caush man, I got control over thish " Murderface fully emerges and descends, the clouds of black dissipating as he does. When his boots touch the the top of the stone wall, it's only him and his bass looking down onto the three.

This was not Murderface. The thought rang loud and clear in the minds of Charles, Abigail, and Pickles. Of course he had some semblance of the bassist, the same speech impediment, the ugly as fuck boots and vest, even the over brushed mustache. But his face was gaunt pale, his skin mottled with purple spots like a well aged corpse. His normal helmet-domed hair was looser, longer, falling from his shoulder in thin rivulets of ash grey.

"What about Toki, where is he?" Charles ventures. There is a familiar yet suffocating feeling wrapping itself around his throat. Something he hadn't felt since the first battle of Mordhaus.

"I knocked him out. I don't think he'sh dead yet, I...we need more power. He'sh being controlled by hish Deth Light. Too weak to handle it I guessh."

Pickles' hands crush his drumsticks. Everyone hears the snapping but say nothing. The vibrations of anger radiate off him in a literal sense. The stone wall around them begins to crumble as the ground shakes. Abigail sends Charles a look.

"Now!" Charles calls out. He lurches over the wall on his side as Abigail flips over the one on hers. Murderface looks on, almost expectantly.

Pickles lets out a roar that sends everything, including the skeleton warriors that had gather around them, flat onto the ground. There is a loud crack immediately followed by several smaller ones as the earth splits up underneath Pickles bare feet but he does not falter. He rises alongside an effigy of solid rock as it emerges. It is stone, mineral, and gems fused together by the heat of his anger. It is a twenty-two piece drum set with double kicks.

"You wanna kill off my friends, den I guess I gotta kill you." Pickle seethes. He produces drumsticks from grains of sands in his palm and begins to play. The sound produced is deafening.

Charles loses his footing for a moment as the rhythm rattles through his bones. He doesn't have time to regain it properly however as skeleton warriors now surround him. He closes his eyes and lets the beating of the drums guide him.

Abigail too is struck by the music and feels her heart beating wildly in tune to the rapid double kicks. She screeches and begins to fight wildly into the swarm with renewed vigor.

Murderface still only watches. He isn't as affected by the music but thrills in it nonetheless.

"I shall show you my true visage."

Just as jagged sheets of stone come hurdling towards him, he flies above, dodging most. One catches his shoulder, ripping the shirt sleeve. Dark purple blood oozes over his arm. He lets out a hollow laugh. His hair grows wilder and longer, graying further until it's a flowing white mane. His arms and his legs stretch and snap, skin simultaneously tearing and healing. His clothes shred and in their place, cold steel forms from within the flesh, hardening over every part of him except for his head.

Pickles never stops playing, if anything he plays harder and faster, hurdling larger sheets of rock at the creature forming before him.

"Come to me." Selatcia bellows.

The warrior whose head Abigail was just about to chop off pulls back, missing her blade. She thrusts forward not wanting to lose the momentum but the warrior only falls back once more. So do the others around her. They drop their weapons and shields clanking heard across the battlefield. The one in front of her lifts off the ground, the one on his right follows, then the one next to that. It takes maybe a few more seconds before all the warriors are now floating off the ground. Even the ones still coming out of the fissure.

"Come to me." Selatcia commands once more. This time his mouth opens, stretching beyond his jaw onto his chest. The floating warriors drift towards him, warping and twisting as he swallows them whole. As they disappear into him, his body grows.

"Dis is like a really bad episode of Powa Rangers." Pickles mutters to himself. Spinning his drumsticks, he begins drumming a harder beat. A rapid staccato of rat-tat-tat-tat-biss-ratatata. After the tenth bar he hears something that actually makes him smile.

Guitars.

In the distance but moving fast, were twin trails of light and shadow. They weaved in and out, back and forth in elaborate aerial patterns paired with a melodic play and recall.

"Toki! Skwisgaar!" Abigail yells ecstatically Their guitar riffs blend fantastically with Pickles drumming. She files it away at the very back of her brain, the part that hopes they will survive, to have them record this in studio.

They spin closer and closer until they make a twirling nose dive near Abigail. As soon as their feet touch the ground, they stop playing.

"No fears, I ams here now." Skwisgaar smirks.

"About fuckin' time ya douchbags!" Pickles shouts. He has stopped playing too but remains in place.

"Pfft, I woulds been here sooner but someones who ams remains unnames neededs to crys out thems deep feelings."

"Shuts the fuck up Skwisgaar."

"Toki, yer on our side right?" Pickles asks half serious. White eyes travel to meet green and Toki nods his head once.

"Alrighty den, let's...."

"Perfection. You are all together."

A booming laugh brings everyone's attention back to Selatcia. He is a titan, as tall as the Empire State Building and twice as wide. His eyes are red and his teeth are bare, sharp like the claws that now hover above them, casting them all in a great shadow. His glowing white hair whips to and fro with snakes hissing at the ends. But it is his armor that truly draws their eye.

It is obsidian, like that of the skeletal warriors and plated with a glowing violet aura. On his chest plate are three glowing stones of a set of five.

"There is no defeat, only succumbing."

"Oh whats the fucks is dats?"

"De halfs man. Wits Moidaface and Natens powers and all them skeletons, he ams almost completes."

"Well, the way I sees it, it's still one, two, three, four..." Pickled points to the remaining members of Dethklok, Abigail and Charles before pointing at himself. "Five against one."

"It's more like three demigods and two humans versus a demon of immeasurable power and evil." Abigail shrugs.

"You are all a part of me."

"We ams not." Toki screams. He flies closer to the massive creature and plays a sporadic riff on his guitar.

"Tokis, that's fucking sloppys." Skwisgaar flies up to Toki and plays a more technically competent version of what Toki played, lightning forming all around them.

"Fucks you Skwisgaar. I'll kills you as soon as he dies."

"Ja, goods luck with that." Skwisgaar deadpans.

"Enough." Selatcia bellows, his arm reaching out to take hold of the guitarists in one swipe but luckily for both, Pickles is one step ahead. He sends a flurry of boulders in front of them to stop the offending hand.

"Guys! We ain't got time for this! We gotta kill this fucker!"

"How dos we do that?"

"Dethklok style." Pickles slams both drumsticks, a crashing wave of sound through the air. He holds one arm up, drumstick pointed to the heavens and taps with the other. One. Two. Three.

Skwisgaar plays a guttural bass chord in tempo. The notes undulate across the battlefield, rippling over every surface with force to shift the very molecules around them. After a bar, Toki's guitar joins with mournful but powerful screech in higher octaves that compliment the bass. The two guitarists hover side by side, matching looks of stoicism.

"That won't be enough." Selatcia laughs, his large hand reaching out again but he is stopped. This time by a sheet of sharp rocks shredding into his tendril like fingers, losing three in the process.

Pickles is smiling, his drumsticks spinning in either hand. "Dat's for Murdahface."

He slams down on the drums and the ground beneath him breaks apart. The torn pieces of earth rise up and around the drummer, forming a spinning platform of jagged rocks. Toki’s guitar blares in with a solid chord progression that catches Selatcia's attention as he clutches his bleeding hand. The music comes off in waves of black as Pickles joins in, his beat struck at every down stroke. Not to be forgotten, Skwisgaar blends in a heavy bass and windmills his hair in complete synchronization.

From beneath them all is Abigail. Looking on in a unique sense of horror and excitement. Surely the band would defeat this monster. She was past the point where any of this made sense and straight to the part where the day was saved and she could go back to cattle-prodding the boys into making a new album. But in that same thought, she felt something else. The hairs on the back of her neck raise, her spine tingle. She turns slowly to find Charles already facing away from the battle and towards the cliffs. The air in her lungs dissipates in that same moment. The sea has risen high above the cliffs of Mordhaus and now hovers in a heaving mass of black waters. Precariously posing as a giant wave over the battlegrounds ready to come crashing. Above it all riding a giant, bioluminescent seashore, is Nathan Explosion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Du ar morket : you are darkness 
> 
> Sorry about the delay. Almost done though!


	10. Cloud This Be The End

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I would rather DIE than go to heaven - William Murderface

_We have the storm coming in now_

Nathan’s voice is powerful. It’s heard throughout the planet, shattering skyscrapers and straw huts alike.

_Let the rumors enrage_

His eyes glow crimson as he dismounts and lands in front of Abigail. Wearing only a pair of shredded jeans, his chest and feet lay bare. His raven hair whipping to and fro on either side of him like a pair of black wings.

_As we’re cloaked in white silence_

Nathan motions with his hand and Abigail is taken off of her feet and onto the back of the seashorse. Charles is sitting there too, grinning like a madman. The waters seemingly held back by Nathan’s whim swell foward and submerge everything, even the fissure. The seahorse swims with the tide, ferrying away the two humans towards the cliffs’ edge.

_In the valley of the falcon range_

Nathan leaps up to take his place by his fellow Gods of Deth. There is a moment of awe and reverance as Pickles, Skwisgaar, and Toki recognize their leader. Especially Toki. Red eyes meet white. They sing in unison.

_**But we wait** _

“How can this be?!” Selatcia screams but his voice is not heard.

_Gotta wait for the first wave_

The waters swell once more and rush over Selatcia. It takes him by surprise but otherwise he is unaffected.

_**Breach the gate** _

The Half Man stretches his good hand into the heavens and clouds darken. They swarm around the appendage, gathering strength.

_And you can see the storm is closer now,_  
**_Thunder gods_**  
_It’s a lightning infestation_  
**_Light the match_**  
_Winds will pick up with stance_

Nathan motions with his hand and Skwisgaar strikes several bolts of lightning into the storm at Selatcia’s hand. He screeches but it continues to gather.

Selatcia opens his mouth, extending as it did before, only this time winds billows from within. He brings his hand down, joining the clouds with wind. It creates a vortex that sucks everything in it's path. The waters, the forgotten weapons, even the members of Dethklok felt the pull.

As Skwisgaar and Toki are the closest, they feel themselves being dragged in so they play harder to deter the pull. Toki plays especially hard, expelling as much power as he can to deflect until Nathan appears in front of him.  
Hand held out so that the air splits onto either side of his palm, he diffuses the vortex altogether.

Toki stares up at Nathan's back, something inside him cracking and splitting. There is no scar or dried blood on Nathan's back where a wound should be. Only his hair whipping back and forth, a sharp contrast to his pale white skin.

Toki has no voice to join Skwisgaar and Pickles in singing.

_**Could this be the end?**_  
_Time is terminated_  
**_Could this be the end?_**

Nathan twists his hand and brings it close to him. At the same time, Selatcia is pulled down and closer to the singer, clawing at the invisible hold on his neck.

_**Punch up go**  
Now we’ll get the falcon flying now_

Nathan punches up which sends Selatcia into the air. A stream of warm, purple blood spews from out his mouth and nose and onto the Nathan.

_**Lock and load**  
The storm is getting nearer_

Selatcia gains control over his body mid-flight and immediately descends back down towards Nathan. His mouth wide open and ready to swallow.

_**Spread our wings**  
As they’re coming from their mound_

He is thwarted by a slab of rock that catches his jaw and throws him off course and onto the ground. He lands with a clattering of dead bodies and abandoned weapons.

_**Lead them here**  
Soon the earth’ll be gone!_

He coughs out the last bit of blood, a hand absently reaching for his chest. There are only two stones alight on his chest plate. He looks up to be met by the gleaming red stare of Nathan Explosion who now holds a claymore in his hand. It is held point down and the pommel as his microphone.

“How?!” He screams. He pushes himself off the ground and materilizes a spear in his good hand. With a roar, he launches himself at Nathan who follows suit, his claymore held properly now.

Their weapons clash, their teeth bare. Despite his size being triple that of Nathan’s, it is Selatcia who looks like he is struggling to dominate. Nathan swipes, pushing him away but heading sword first at him.

Skwisgaar, still laying the bass, now sings.

_I can’t see, no_  
_I can’t break through, no_  
_Surprised me too, woah_  
_It’s time to go_

Nathan lands a clean blow into Selatcia’s shoulder. Blood spurts, covering his sword but he does not stop. He cuts down until the Half Man’s arm is fully severed, weapon still clutch in hand.

Selatcia screeches, his voice turned hallow. He swipes at Nathan as one would a fly but he simply dodges, using the momentum to swing his claymore into a full circle and lunges. This time, Selatcia is the one to dodge but just barely. In retaliation, he sends a plume of dark clouds at Nathan.

He tries to cut through it with his sword but it engulfs him, wrapping around him like a boa constrictor. It begins to seep into his eyes, nose, mouth, and ears. He shudders and gurgles as the black cloud begins to fill him.

Pickles voice now cries out over their battle.

_Yeah, yeah, yeah_  
_We are the dust from stars now_  
_Yeah, yeah, yeah_  
_We know we own the light_

Pickles drumming picks up and the platform that surround him undoes itself and seperates into five slabs. One stays directly beneath him. Two shoot out and underneath Toki and Skwisgaar each. The remaining two fly at opposite ends of each other. All five spin clockwise, faster and faster and lowers them down near Nathan’s choking form.

_Yeah, yeah, yeah_  
_We bend the atomsphere_  
_Yeah, yeah, yeah_  
_The end is in out sights_

The spinning slabs draw the smothering cloud out of Nathan’s orifices until it fully dissipates, freeing him. Selatcia screams out in frustration and forms a new, larger spear, this time aiming directly at Nathan’s heart.

He catches it before it can pierce his flesh.

_The centrifuge is spinning,_  
_And the star forms its path_  
_The five dudes’ll sacrifice_  
_To stop its magnetized wrath_

He snaps the spear in half and raises his claymore to better lunge at Selatcia’s chest. The Half Man does not respond in time and is met with a sword through his diaphragm. Red eyes and a wicked smile stare up at him.

_And the demon is decending_  
_Closer to his house_  
_This metal fucking behavior_  
_With the storm of the ghost_

Nathan pushes the sword through. He pushes through until his wrist disappears beneath blood and armor. And instead of pulling away, he pushes down and out, gutting Selatcia.

He convulses, losing altitude. Masses of violet tumble out from his gaping wound. One after another, in an endless stream of purple sick. When it reaches the water, they sizzle and burn like acid.

Skwisgaar sings.

_Woah, leave their souls_  
_We were always meant to go_  
_Woah, let it be  
_ _One last fight with our sword_

Selatcia attempts to clutch at the masses falling out but they slip through too easily until a particularly large mass catches in his three remaining fingers.

“No.” He whispers.

_**See them, cold alive  
We must die, but we lived our lives** _

Nathan swoops down. Selatcia sends out tendrils of dark clouds but he easily cuts through them. Nathan reaches for the large mass, clutching it from its back and pulling away.

It is a body.

_Falcons screech,_  
_the planet will be wipe  
The demons stop us posers shooting flaming bodied light_

He soars upward, closer to the rest of the band and chucks the body onto one of the free slabs and lands onto the opposite one between Pickles and Toki.

_The light of deth, have built for the strike  
The pentagram of power keeps the demon away_

Skwisgaar sends out smaller bolts of lightning into the center of their platform. They bounce across each other until a pentagram is formed.

The burning mass of fire that up until this very moment has been hiding behind the storm clouds and darkness now breaks through. It illuminates the entire world in a flashing moment and disappears just as suddenly when its essences shoots into the center of the pentagram.

_The star and the planet and the universe quake  
The storm built of fury crushing deth in its wake_

Selatcia is weak but not yet defeated. He can undo all this before it is too late. He needs only to break their link. He closes his eyes and focuses his powers of telepathy into the mind of the weakness member.

The body, still covered with the insides of a demon, comes to life. Wretching and coughing, Murderface attempts to remove some of the gunk from his mouth and lungs.

He has no idea what is going on but instinctually knows he needs to do something. He looks around and sees his band in what seems like the first time forever.

Pickles is drumming harder than he’s ever seen, his dreads flingng through the air, his rage manifested brillantly through the drums. Skwisgaar and Toki are completely synchronized with Toki playing lead. Light and darkness, windmilling side by side. And Nathan fucking Explosion screaming into his claymore.

_We left ourselves behind_  
_And we looked within_  
_We know that we must die,_  
_but for now_  
_We live_

But there was someone else there too. The old man in the mirror. Back again.

_Alright_

“William, help me and I can give you...”

“Shut the fuck up.” Murderface cuts him off and proceeds to undo his pants.

_Alright_

“You would throw away the opportunity to be the most powerful being in the universe?”

_Alright_

“Itsch like thish pal.” Murderface pees in the direction of Selatcia, his urine going through the ghostly mirage and onto the pentagram. Upon contact, the pentagram expands into every corner in the universe. “I don’t care.”

Selatcia has just enough time to contort his mouth into the the word no before he is completely enmassed by a white hot flame.

_Alright we live!_

Abigail and Charles sit side by side ontop of the seashorse. They could no longer make out the band, nor the Half Man, not even the ground. They remain suspended in the sea with their ears ringing and their skin tingling.

_**Could this be the end?** _

“Song and Deth!” Shouts Charles or at least that is what Abigail thinks is what he said.

“What?!” She turns to him, confused.

“The Song of Deth! The boys just played the Song of Deth fortold in the prophecy. Everything ends in metal and fire!!!”

“Clever.” She smirks, hers eyes looking back over at Doom Star-fried Half Man. "Really fucking clever."

_**Could this be the end?** _

Toki's hands have stopped moving. Not because he couldn't finish the song but because he could feel his heart beating again. It beats in perfect time with the waves.

He turns his head and finds red eyes fading back to green, looking directly at him.

“Natens.”

_**Could this be the end?** _

Nathan’s hand reaches out to him and Toki does not hestitant to take it. Soon as he does, he is pulled from his platform and onto Nathan’s. The darkness that clung to his entire being dissolves. It disappears, shrivels up and crumbles aways and off his body so that when he lays his free hand onto Nathan’s chest, it is his hand and not the darkness that tenderly touches warm flesh. It is his own baby blue eyes that look up into deep emeralds, not soulless white ones. And it is with his own lips, not Death’s nor darkness that he leans up to kiss with.

_**Could this be the end?** _

“Is there more?” She asks. “To the prophecy that is?”

Charles takes a moment to formulate his response. Long enough for Abigail to turn back to him.

“Complete annihilation.”

_**Could this be the end?** _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Galaktikon II: Become the Storm is an amazing album!!! During an interview to promote it, Brendon Small mentions that yes, you will hear Dethklok because he IS Dethklok. One song in particular stuck out to me.


End file.
